Since enrolling its first class of students in 1971, LaGuardia Community College has established itself as a nationally recognized leader among community colleges. Recent awards and achievements include Top Three Large Community Colleges in the National Survey of Student Engagement; Institution of Excellence by the National Policy Center for the First Year of College; Hesburgh Certificate of Excellence in Undergraduate Education by TIAA-CREF; and Best Practice College by the MetLife Foundation.

Its vibrant culturally diverse student body, representing 160 countries and speaking 110 different native languages, has established LaGuardia as “The World’s Community College. ” The college provides a broad array of academic, workforce development, and continuing education programs to over 41,000 students.

With one of the highest enrollments of international students of any community college, it graduates a higher proportion of minorities than most community colleges. LaGuardia students go on to baccalaureate education at over twice the national average, and the college supports such activity through its innovative joint programs with Vassar College and Barnard College in Exploring Transfer. The college hosts two public high schools. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation recently provided over $40 million to a national project, coordinated by the Consortium of Middle College High Schools, to adapt the high school/college collaborative begun at LaGuardia Community College at over 20 sites across the nation.

The College facilities incorporate state-of-the-art computers, enabling it to become a leader in e-portfolio and the other uses of technology in the classroom. Programs in health-related fields include training in pre-hospital emergency medical care, nursing, dietetics, physical and occupational therapy, and veterinary technology. The College curriculum includes accounting, business management, paralegal studies, travel and tourism, computer science, programming, systems, operations, telecommunications, and office technology.

As CUNY’s only cooperative education college, LaGuardia offers all day students two mandatory work experiences as part of their program of study for an Associate’s degree. Intensive, computer-based review courses in writing and mathematics enable students to acquire more quickly the basic skills they need to move into their chosen programs of study.

The Division of Adult and Continuing Education houses the largest non-federally funded program for deaf adults in the country; its Institute of Sign Language Interpretation is unique in the New York metropolitan area. Other areas of service include the training of Emergency Medical Technicians and Paramedics, bilingual Home Health Aides, and intensive classes in ESL for recent immigrants. In addition, LaGuardia’s Small Business Development Center (SBDC) provides business counseling in four languages. The SBDC has packaged over $17 million in loans for small businesses since its inception just after September 11, 2001, and provided service to over 1,000 businesses through customized training and other workforce activities. Over $15 million in external funding through grants and contracts is secured each year for workforce development, programs that support at-risk students, and initiatives to help low income individuals transition to work and to education. LaGuardia’s business incubator, New York Designs, is a joint program with the City University of New York. New York Designs will house 20 young small design companies that produce high-end home and gift products. It includes specialized business counseling, connection to investment capital, and access to high-end prototype equipment.