This article describes the pilot implementation at Big Bend Community College of Connect2Complete (C2C), a program created by Campus Compact with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Through course-based peer-to-peer advocacy and peer-assisted service-learning—C2C supports vulnerable students in achieving academic success and credential completion while they actively engage with their peers, their college, and their broader community. These strategies encourage academic development, social integration, personal development, and civic consciousness—all key factors for student persistence. The article explores the assets and strengths that developmental education students bring to service-learning and to peer advocacy. At Big Bend, the C2C program led to increased retention and persistence among developmental education students enrolled in college-survival-skills (CSS) classes. In each of these classes, faculty incorporated service-learning to support the curriculum. Each CSS class was also assigned a peer advocate, who engaged CSS students, academically and socially, and helped them to connect to student support services offered by the College. The article also illustrates the resilience demonstrated by students and peer advocates involved in the C2C pilot.

Exploration of the Assets That Developmental Education Students Bring to Service-Learning and Peer Advocacy is a report of the lessons from C2C in Big Bend Community College.