Our old process was like looking for a needle in a haystack. Now it’s like picking apples off a tree.”
San Jacinto College set out to respond to recent changes in Texas legislation that tie community college funding to credential completion. The college recognized that existing processes made it challenging to capture every eligible graduate and saw an opportunity to strengthen both student outcomes and institutional funding by modernizing its approach.
To meet the new funding requirements and better serve their diverse student population, San Jacinto implemented Ellucian Award, enabling their team to discover credentials across declared and undeclared programs, automate internal audits, and award degrees in absentia, dramatically improving efficiency and equity in the credentialing process.
- Identified and validated more than 1,100 additional graduates in just two months
- Reduced manual review time and increased productivity across registrar workflows.
- Empowered first-generation and trade students to receive credentials they didn’t know they’d earned
Preparing for a New Funding Model in Texas
Across the country, colleges are finding new ways to ensure every student receives the credentials they’ve earned. Far too often, students complete the requirements for certificates or degrees — sometimes in programs they never formally declared — without realizing they’re eligible. With centralized, automated tools, institutions can uncover these hidden achievements, celebrate student success, and unlock critical funding to fuel their mission.
At San Jacinto College, this challenge became urgent with the passage of Texas House Bill 8, which introduced a performance-based funding model for community colleges. Under the new legislation, state dollars are tied directly to measurable student outcomes — including credential completion. To maximize funding, colleges must identify and award every eligible credential, often within tight timelines.
“We wanted to give every student credit for the work they had completed, but identifying those credentials across programs was complex,” said Associate College Registrar Danielle Thomas. “Faculty reached out to make sure their students were recognized, and we knew we needed a more efficient way.”
San Jacinto’s existing processes relied heavily on declared majors and student applications for graduation. That meant countless students were slipping through the cracks.
A Strategic Solution: Automating Credential Discovery with Award
San Jacinto College, a public, Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) that supports more than 30,000 students across five Houston campuses, needed a solution that could scale and automate in the face of new funding requirements. With more than 200 degrees and certificates offered across eight major areas of study, they turned to Ellucian Award to surface every credential a student has earned, whether declared or not.
San Jacinto began its implementation with a sample dashboard, analyzing a subset of approximately 2,000 students. Even in that limited pool, the team identified 158 previously unawarded completers — translating to an estimated $553,000 in potential state funding.
Results improved quickly as Award’s dashboard and segmentation filters replaced time-consuming spreadsheets and manual audits. “Instead of sifting through spreadsheets with thousands of students, I can now drop down in a dashboard and see exactly who hasn’t been awarded,” said Records Specialist-Student Records Management Sandra Alaniz. “It saves a lot of time.” San Jacinto scaled Award to their full student data set of over 100,000 students. Within just two months, they validated more than 1,100 students eligible for credentials — many of whom had never applied for graduation.
“You’re going from a spreadsheet with thousands of students to a dashboard where I can drop down and see exactly who hasn’t been awarded. It saves a lot of time.”
Award uses pattern recognition algorithms to compare a student’s completed coursework against all available degree and certificate requirements. With advanced filtering, institutions can identify stop-outs, students who temporarily pause enrollment, but are eligible to graduate. Award also highlights certificates earned along the path to degree completion, potentially boosting student earning potential and institutional performance funding.
“We used to find 600 students in a fiscal year,” said Graduation Specialist Miriam Mendez. “Now we’re over 1,000 in just a couple of months.”
From Surprise to Student Success: Awarding Unexpected Credentials
The impact on students has been immediate and deeply personal. Some earn what the team calls “accidental degrees,” credentials they didn’t realize they’d qualified for while taking courses to transfer or explore career paths. “We get emails from students saying, ‘Oh my God, I have a degree?’” said Mendez. “They’re shocked and excited. Many are first-generation graduates — it’s incredibly gratifying.”
The impact felt by Award extends institution-wide. “Award has helped San Jacinto identify and celebrate hundreds of additional graduates that never applied to graduate,” said Dean of Records Management Kevin McKisson. “That not only helps to maximize our state funding under House Bill 8, but more importantly, it ensures every student receives the credentials they’ve earned. This directly supports our mission to increase completion and build a stronger Texas workforce.”
Now, San Jacinto’s graduation team is using Ellucian Award to run internal audits, filter for unawarded credentials, and communicate directly with students who qualify. The college is also looking forward to expanding its use of the platform to award credentials in absentia, ensuring students receive recognition even if they haven’t formally applied for graduation. San Jacinto is also preparing to extend Award’s capabilities to advising teams, helping students understand how close they are to completion and encouraging them to finish.
