Long Beach City College will receive $750,000 to expand its Long Beach College Promise program, a collaboration between the city, Long Beach Unified School District, LBCC and Cal State Long Beach to increase academic success for local students.

LBCC was one of 14 community colleges selected by the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office to receive the California College Promise Innovation Grant, which is part of a $15 million grant program created by Assemblymembers Patrick O’Donnell and Freddie Rodriguez, and signed by the governor last September.

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“Long Beach City College is proud to be one of the first recipients of the California College Promise Innovation Grant Program,” said LBCC Acting Superintendent-President Ann-Marie Gabel in a statement. “We’re also proud that the Long Beach College Promise was cited as the model for Assemblymembers O’Donnell and Rodriguez’s legislation.”

Gabel said LBCC looks forward to using the grant money to expand the Long Beach College Promise and help more students achieve their higher education goals.

The LBCP began in 2008 as a collaboration between LBUSD, LBCC and CSULB to increase the success of local students in higher education, LBCC officials said. The city joined in 2014 with a focus on early education and internships.

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With the start of the LBCP, the city college offered a free semester to LBUSD graduates in 2008. The tuition-free education was expanded to one full academic year to all qualified LBUSD graduates in 2015.