More Than Access
I remember having a conversation with my mother when I was first considering college as a young teen. She urged, “Yo quiero lo mejor para ti. I want you to have the best education–to have a better life than I could ever make for myself. I want to be there to see mi hijo (my…
Read MoreAccess and Outcomes Are Not at Odds
For more than 150 years, access to higher education, regardless of a student’s financial background, has been the driving force behind efforts to make good on the transformative promise of education. It is a paradigm that began with the Morrill Land-Grant Acts in the late 1800s and was later dramatically shaped by the GI Bill,…
Read MoreTo All the Students Who Earned Their Spot in College
For all of us who were first in our families to go to college. Who worked fast food or retail to make as much extra cash as possible. Who had to convince our worried immigrant parents to turn over their taxes so we could fill out FAFSA and then shock them with the news that…
Read MoreFiling the FAFSA Matters: When Students File May Matter More
Several weeks ago CampusLogic released a data snapshot on the patterns in FAFSA® (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) filings during the 2018-19 aid year. The piece, Timing Is Everything: FAFSA Filing Trends, offers a never-before-seen look at the data from a form that more than 18 million individuals looking for financial assistance to make…
Read MoreReach Higher: Five Years of Building a College-Going Culture
Five years ago, we launched Reach Higher at a College Signing Day event in San Antonio, Texas. Former First Lady Michelle Obama, a first-generation college graduate herself, wanted to create an initiative that would inspire students to continue their education past high school. She wanted to change the national conversation around higher education and shine…
Read MoreStudent-Centric State Leadership: A Q&A with Zakiya Smith Ellis
Zakiya Smith Ellis, New Jersey’s Secretary of Higher Education, has played a significant role in shaping federal policy around higher education affordability and outcomes over the past decade. She served as a senior advisor at both the White House and the U.S. Department of Education during the Obama administration, working on high-profile initiatives such as…
Read MoreGetting Higher Education in Sync with Workforce: A Q&A with Steve Partridge, Vice President of Workforce and Economic Development at NOVA
Serving one of the fastest growing communities of the Washington, D.C. suburbs, Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA) has faced the challenge of helping local communities prepare for an influx of new jobs in health care, information technology, and cybersecurity. As the vice president for workforce and economic development, Steve Partridge has been NOVA’s point man…
Read MoreMy Higher Education Story
In September 2017, I graduated from The College of Health Care Professions (CHCP) with a bachelor’s degree in Health Informatics. Though I had completed the program online, I drove nearly 200 miles from my home in San Antonio, Texas, to the graduation ceremony in Houston. That might seem like a lengthy drive, but it was…
Read MoreThe Student Success Movement’s Next Push: Career Services: A Q&A with Bridget Burns, Executive Director, University Innovation Alliance
Earlier this month, the University Innovation Alliance announced its next scale project, with a cohort of seven institutions teaming up to close the gap between college and the workforce. This next scale initiative, which received $2.4 million in funding from Strada Education Network, will involve career services professionals developing innovative concepts to pilot both on…
Read MoreMy Student Story as an Independent Student
Editor’s Note: In this video narrative, Carthage College student Daquawn Bruce discusses his experience as a financially independent student and community college transfer. This story is Daquawn Bruce’s video submission to Higher Learning Advocates’ Voices of Today’s Students, a national campaign to educate policymakers about the demographic shift and experiences of the modern higher learning…
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