While California’s Coachella Valley may be best known for its chic resorts, famed tennis tournament, and wildly popular music festival, it’s also home to a quieter success story: a Palm Desert community college that’s making huge strides in helping students reach their academic goals. Serving about 16,000 students, the College of the Desert (COD) is located in Riverside County, which has long sought to improve its college-going and bachelor’s degree attainment rates. Federally recognized as a Hispanic-serving institution, COD has held two Title V grants focused on Latinx, low-income, and first-generation college students. In recent years, the college has focused on addressing its community’s needs—while at the same time working to increase its completion rates, improve advising,

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