Southwest Tennessee Community College is advancing a bold five-year strategy through 2031 focused on economic and social mobility for students. Building on earlier reforms (access and completion), Reform 3.0 shifts the College’s focus to post-graduation outcomes—ensuring students achieve meaningful careers, continued education, and upward mobility.

Unlike traditional strategic plans organized around administrative divisions, Start. Stride. Soar. organizes the institution around the student journey.

Two institutional priorities anchor this work:

• Workforce alignment with high-demand careers
• Seamless transfer pathways to bachelor’s degrees

The College will operate through a unified student-centered model:
START (entry), STRIDE (progress), SOAR (outcomes and prosperity).

Southwest Tennessee Community College was founded on the belief that education changes lives. That belief remains true today. Yet the challenges facing Memphis and the Mid-South require a renewed commitment to ensuring that education serves as a pathway to opportunity, prosperity, and economic mobility. The region faces significant and persistent disparities in educational attainment, workforce participation, income, and economic opportunity. For many residents, access to higher education remains an essential pathway toward improving quality of life and achieving long-term financial stability.

At the same time, employers across multiple sectors continue to face growing workforce shortages and increasing demand for highly skilled talent. The changing economy demands new approaches to education and workforce development. Today’s students must be prepared not only for their first job, but for careers that will continue to evolve throughout their lives. Employers increasingly seek individuals who possess technical expertise, critical thinking skills, adaptability, communication skills, and the ability to navigate a rapidly changing workplace. The traditional divide between education and employment is disappearing. Southwest Tennessee Community College is one of the Mid-South’s leading engines for workforce development, university transfer, and economic mobility. Every year, thousands of students and employers rely on Southwest to build the region’s talent pipeline and strengthen our communities.

Students and families are asking important questions: Will this credential lead to a good job? Will this degree create economic opportunity? Will this pathway improve my future? These questions require Southwest to think differently about student success. Access remains important. Completion remains important. But neither represents the ultimate goal. The ultimate goal is prosperity.

Success must now be measured beyond enrollment and completion.
The true outcome is prosperity, defined as:

• Employment with family-sustaining wages
• Continued education
• Economic mobility

• 23.1% of Memphis residents live in poverty.
• 72% of adults do not hold a bachelor’s degree.
• Tennessee employers continue to face shortages in healthcare, logistics, advanced manufacturing, skilled trades, engineering, and information technology.
• Postsecondary credentials dramatically increase lifetime earnings and are among the most effective pathways to economic mobility. 

Southwest Tennessee Community College is uniquely positioned to move students from poverty to prosperity by connecting education directly to workforce opportunity.

WHY REFORM 3.0?
The Evolution of Community College Success

Community colleges have long served as engines of opportunity, opening doors to higher education and workforce advancement for millions of students. Over time, however, the definition of student success has evolved. As the needs of students, employers, and communities have changed, so too has the role of community colleges. At Southwest Tennessee Community College, our strategic journey reflects three distinct eras of institutional transformation.

Southwest’s strategic progression:

• Reform 1.0 – Access: Expanding educational entry
• Reform 2.0 – Completion: Improving retention and graduation
• Reform 3.0 – Prosperity: Ensuring post-graduation success

Reform 3.0 emphasizes career outcomes, transfer success, and long-term 
economic mobility

OUR VISION 2026-2031 
A Future Defined by Prosperity

Southwest Tennessee Community College envisions a future where every student has access to a clear pathway toward educational attainment, career success, and economic mobility. In this future, students arrive at Southwest with confidence because they understand their options, see the connection between education and opportunity, and receive the support necessary to achieve their goals.  At Southwest, prosperity is not simply a financial outcome. Prosperity means meaningful employment. Prosperity means family-sustaining wages. Prosperity means educational attainment. Prosperity means economic mobility. Prosperity means civic engagement.