Recent Awards and Recognitions

The following is a list of notable accolades that highlight Rio Salado College's administration, faculty and staff, programs and initiatives

  • Rio Salado College student was named Outstanding Adult Learner of the Year by the Coalition on Adult Basic Education (COABE).  
  • President Kate Smith was named the first-place recipient of the Terry O’Banion Provocateur Award from the League for Innovation in the Community College, a national recognition that honors bold thinking and innovation in higher education. 
  • The KJZZ News team won 9 Edward R. Murrow regional awards for their 2025 reporting.
  • Rio Salado co-launched an AI and Assessments initiative in February 2026 with WCET, axim.org, and the Alamo Colleges District.
  • ABC News featured a story about Rio Salado’s youngest student, a 10-year old Chandler girl who earned an A in her first college class through Rio.
  • President Kate Smith was interviewed by the Chronicle of Higher Education for a story about the growing importance of microcredentials in education and how Rio Salado has been at the forefront of this development.
  • Rio’s Elementary Education and Special Education Bachelor’s degree program received an A rating from the National Council on Teacher Quality for preparing future teachers in reading instruction.

  • 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

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