Awards and Recognitions
- Rio Salado College & Adult Education Receive Awards at 2023 CAEL Conference
- Rio Salado College and American College of Education Partner to Expand Student Opportunities in Education
- Rio Salado PTK received several recognitions at the Catalyst 2023 conference: Dr. Greg Pereira was named a PTK Distinguished College Administrator; Dr. Lily Davidov and John Bastian received a PTK Distinguished Chapter Advisor Team Award; 2022 graduate Cordero Holmes was recognized as a PTK advocate; and our chapter received a regional honorable mention.
- Harvard's Center for Education Policy Research Honors Rio Research Team
- Rio Salado College, Tempe Chamber Create Tempe Workforce Skills Accelerator
- WGU, Fierce Education Put Spotlight on Rio’s Student Digital Experience Work
- Both articles are available online.
- College received Gold Award from Healthy Arizona Worksites Program, 2nd year in a row.
- Rio Salado was selected to serve as a sub-grantee for a four-year, $4.6 million, multi-institution grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The grant helps the college continue its mission to provide microelectronics and nanomanufacturing training.
- Rio Salado was selected to participate in the next round of the Beyond Completion Challenge by Strada Education Network in partnership with the Taskforce on Higher Education and Opportunity. Through the program award of $1,490,796 Rio Salado will work on solutions to improve career and life opportunities for students.
- Rio Salado’s Avanzar Project received a $2,939,518 Department of Education Developing Hispanic-Serving Institutions (DHSI) Title V grant to expand educational opportunities for, and improve the attainment of, Hispanic students and other underserved students.
- The Arizona Women in Higher Education selected President Smith as Woman of the Year.
- Global food company, JBS USA, selects RSC as national, online community college partner for their Better Futures Program
- Rio Salado College Wins 2019-20 Innovation of the Year Award
- Rio Salado College named a 2021 “Great College to Work For” by the Chronicle of Higher Education
- RSC Receives GOLD Healthy Arizona Worksite Award
- RSC Adult Education Receives Innovation Award for Workforce Development Leadership
- Rio Salado named as one of five members of the 2017 class of Excellence in Assessment (EIA) .
- Rio Salado College named Arizona Quality Alliance 2012 Performance Excellence Award winner.
- Rio Salado College named “Great College to Work For” by the Chronicle of Higher Education
- Rio Salado’s Early Childhood Education Program received a grant from First Things First South Phoenix Region
- Rio Salado College honor student Sandra Garayzar received a $10,000 scholarship from the Talbot’s Women’s Scholarship Program
- KJZZ awarded a National Headliner Award for story about drug cartels leading to mass exodus in Northern Mexico by Press Club of Atlantic City
- Sun Sounds of Arizona awarded with Boeing grant by Employees Community Fund of Boeing Mesa
- Received Five Workforce Development grants totaling more than $3 million to create programs, increase use of technology in the classroom and improve civics education in Arizona
- Received $1.2 Million Noyce Grant to train science and math teachers
- Rio received a Sloan Award for exemplary workplace practices by the Families and Work Institute
- Rio’s Teacher Prep Program received a $1.2 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF)
- Received $2.8 Million Department of Labor workforce development grant. Grant to support seven-college consortium with goal of training displaced workers in the field of information technology
- Rio recognized as an institution “beating the odds” when it comes to helping keep students who are most prone to dropping out of college by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
- Innovative Delivery of Postsecondary Education, by the Beating the Odds Report
- Earned Silver rating from the Sustainability Tracking Assessment and Reporting System (STARS). STARS was developed by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, September 19, 2011
- Visionary Higher-Education Leader, Maximizing Your College Investment by Forbes
- Using High-Tech Tools to Open Doors, by the Focus Magazine Lumina Foundation
- One of three institutions to receive the 2012 Council for Higher Education Accreditation Award for Outstanding Institutional Practice in Student Learning Outcomes
- Presented with 2011 Arizona Quality Alliance Showcase in Excellence Award for internally developed plagiarism detection system.
- Fastest Growing Public Two-Year Colleges (of schools having enrollments of 10,000 or more) by Community College Week.
- One of Eight Highly Productive Higher-Education Institutions in, Winning by Degrees, a report which profiles cost effective best practices by McKinsey & Company
- Only Dual Enrollment program in Arizona to receive accreditation from the National Alliance of Concurrent Enrollment Partnerships (NACEP)
- Received a WCET Outstanding Work (WOW) Award from WICHE Cooperative for Educational Technologies a Peer to Peer Plagiarism detection system.
- Phi Theta Kappa student, Brendan Pierce was awarded the Coca-Cola Gold Scholar award and recognized as one the nation’s top 50 community college students
- Alpha Theta Omicron Chapter of Phi Theta Kappa received Five-Star Status, Distinguished Chapter Member and Pinnacle Awards
- KJZZ 91.5 FM received the Radio Television Digital New Association Edward R. Murrow award for continuing coverage of Arizona’s immigrations issues
- Sun Sounds of Arizona received 5 programming awards from the International Association of Audio Information Services (IAAIS).
- MCTV Cox Cable 115 received international recognition: 4 bronze Telly Awards, 7 Videographer Awards and a bronze Summit Award.
- The Phoenix Business Journal named Rio the Valley’s 2011 Healthiest Employer in the mid-sized company category
- “America’s Greenest Campus” from Climate Culture
- “Top 10 Digital Savvy College” in the nation from the Center for Digital Education and Converge magazine