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Hartnell College, a Hispanic-Serving Institution in California’s Salinas Valley, serves as both an educational anchor and an engine of opportunity for its community. Nearly 12,500 students attend each year, almost half of whom are over the age of 25. Hartnell’s mission centers on access, completion, and lifelong learning across its multiple campuses and community partnerships.
Hartnell systems had not kept pace with the realities of modern learners, students who often juggle full-time jobs, family responsibilities, and part-time study. Processes that historically worked began to create barriers, particularly for adults returning to education. Recruitment strategies felt narrow, orientation was an event that lasted only hours and did not carry forward into the semester, and advising lacked the consistency needed to help students stay on track.
College leadership recognized that a different approach was needed to foster student success. They wanted a One College Model: structures that worked across all campus centers, technology that connected departments rather than divided them, and a student experience that matched Hartnell’s commitment to access and belonging.
To move toward that vision, Hartnell partnered with Swim Digital Group to conduct a comprehensive institutional assessment and guide a full redesign of the student experience, one that united people, processes, and platforms around a single goal: helping every learner find a clear path forward.
Hartnell’s mission was clear, but its systems made it difficult to deliver on that promise. Processes operated in silos, communication varied by campus, and students often encountered a different experience depending on where they entered the college.
The college faced a series of barriers that limited both access and consistency.
Swim began by grounding the work in understanding of the college, its people, and the students it serves. The team conducted an Environmental Analysis that combined market research, institutional data, and firsthand student experience to reveal where systems supported success and where they created barriers.
Through a series of Deep Dive sessions with leadership, enrollment services, counseling faculty, and IT staff, Swim mapped how students moved from first inquiry to the first day of class. These sessions highlighted friction points that slowed progress, uncovered duplicate efforts, and surfaced opportunities for alignment.
To bring an authentic student perspective into the process, Swim deployed Secret Students who tested the onboarding and enrollment experience from start to finish. Their experiences confirmed what internal teams suspected and illuminated details that often went unseen.
Rather than approaching problems one at a time, Swim guided Hartnell toward holistic solutions that were:
Actionable: Designed to improve operations in the near term while setting the stage for long-term progress.
Collaborative: Shaped by college teams rather than external consultants.
Sustainable: Supported by realistic structures and timelines.
Student Centered: Grounded in access, belonging, and connection across all campuses.
This approach created shared ownership across departments and set a foundation for lasting alignment between people, processes, and platforms.
We partnered with teams across Hartnell to design one onboarding experience, establish clear ownership for each step, and centralize core processes. The result is a more predictable, equitable student journey across all centers.
To build this enrollment and completion funnel, we drew on the SEM Plan developed in Phase 1 and worked with cross-functional teams to map every step of the student journey across all Hartnell locations.
Together, we clarified ownership for each action, centralized work that had been duplicated on individual campuses,
and aligned timelines and communication standards. We partnered with IT to ensure tools and service expectations supported the process.
While we facilitated and guided the dialogue, the funnel and ownership matrix were created by Hartnell’s teams, ensuring the work will be sustained long after our engagement.
Building on the insights from its assessment, Swim helped Hartnell translate findings into practical strategies that strengthened both access and operations. Each solution focused on simplifying the student experience while reinforcing alignment across teams and campuses.
Together, these strategies created a foundation for a more connected institution, one capable of meeting students where they are and helping them move forward with purpose.
Hartnell’s transformation led to measurable progress in enrollment, efficiency, and culture. The college’s renewed focus on access and alignment produced changes that reached every corner of the institution.
Today, Hartnell College operates as a unified, student-centered institution that is better equipped to serve its community. Systems that once functioned independently now work together, creating a connected experience for students and a clearer structure for staff. The college has built momentum toward lasting improvement rather than one-time change.
Through this transformation, Hartnell is now positioned to:
The work has extended beyond structures and systems. It has reshaped how people at every level see their role in student success. Leadership, faculty, and staff now share a common language and a shared responsibility for removing barriers and creating opportunity.
Hartnell College stands as a model for how community colleges can move from fragmented systems to fully integrated ecosystems where access, alignment, and efficiency reinforce one another to create meaningful outcomes for every
learner.
