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With historical underfunding, high staff turnover, and a rising culture that deprioritizes going to college, higher education leaders are facing a number of challenges. In order to support students and lead them to lifelong success, many administrators are employing holistic strategies and innovative approaches to transform the student experience.
On December 19 2023, Mentor Collective co-founder Jackson Boyar hosted Achieving the Dream’s Chief Program and Network Officer Dr. Monica Parrish Trent in a podcast-style Fireside Chat to discuss challenges, gain insights, and—most importantly—provide inspiration to higher education leaders everywhere.
Here are some key takeaways from the conversation with Dr. Parrish Trent, event director of the annual DREAM conference, as she shares her personal story as a first-generation college student who benefitted from innovative student support strategies herself.
Redefine Access 
For a very long time, student success meant little more than getting learners onto campus. Today, the line that measures student success has moved further forward move from simply enrolling to serving.
According to Dr. Parrish Trent, “just because your doors are open doesn’t mean folks are walking through. You have to really hold their hands and make sure that they are fully integrated into your campus community if you expect them to be successful.”
“The conversation around student success started at access, moved to transition, and retention, then moved to graduation, and now that is not enough,” echoed Boyar. “It’s about social mobility, happiness, and opportunity that higher education affords.”
In an anecdote from her own personal journey, Dr. Parrish Trent recalled that while attending George Mason University, a predominantly white institution, a lot of effort was made to provide access to Black students. This wasn’t just about getting them to the school, but about walking with them throughout the college experience, fostering a sense of community, and creating easy pathways to the support they needed.
Institutions Must Play a Role in the Path to Employment
The promise of a college degree or credential isn’t just about completion; it represents upward social mobility and access to opportunities. If a learner has a degree but no employment prospects, the institution hasn’t fulfilled its promise.
“Don't assume that we're finished when they earn a degree or credential or transfer,” says Dr. Parrish Trent. “Our work isn't really done until we ensure that they are in jobs that allow them to provide for themselves and their families.”
In order to translate the needs of the labor market to the programming on campus, “hard culture work” is required. Now more than ever, it’s critical for higher education institutions to be innovative, nimble, and agile in their approach. While higher education often moves slowly, institutions need to prioritize program adaptations so they can support labor market needs and create opportunities for their learners.
For example, Columbus State partnered with Intel to develop a pipeline of semiconductor technicians. This creates jobs in the area and gets more students into careers that can change their lives.
Reach Into the Community
According to Dr. Parrish Trent, “one of the things that we try to stand tall in as a community college is that we are the community's college.” It’s not just about access to education, but also access to healthcare, libraries, public support, and mental health services.
Knowing the community around your institution and the challenges people in it face are foundational. It’s not just about looking at who’s making it into the university, but also about who’s not able to. This is more important today as institutions continue to contend with a rising non-college-going culture. Institutions have to reinforce their value proposition, as well as reach into communities where a college credential can make an impact on social and economic mobility.
For example:
- Broward College in Florida uses its Broward Up program to reach into ZIP codes around their community to understand how financial constraints are limiting people’s ability to earn a credential and ultimately access to employment.
- Amarillo College uses its Culture of Caring model to reach into poverty-impacted communities and provide holistic support to help students succeed. It's hard for a student to learn if they are worried about their next meal, if they aren’t properly and safely sheltered, or if they are living in a trauma-infused environment.
“What does it take as a college community to think about the clothing, feeding, and shelter of your students so that they can take those opportunities in the workforce that are up by virtue of getting a credential or some type of certification?” says Dr. Parrish Trent.
Don’t Just Focus on Students, Support Your Staff
Higher education has experienced a historically high turnover rate over the last three years. The ability of leaders to help students succeed is only as good as the teams behind them. Understanding factors that increase belonging in the staff and cultivating employee retention is key to the ongoing effectiveness of these efforts.
Dr. Parrish-Trent says, “think about creating leadership and growth opportunities at all levels, as well as ways to stimulate and challenge employees” so they, too, are fulfilled and advancing within the institution.
Understand Your Equity Gaps
Closing equity gaps is key to promoting student success, but it’s hard to solve a problem you don’t understand. Dr. Parrish Trent encourages leaders and institutions to mine their data in order to identify the gaps.
“Equity gaps don’t come out of thin air. There's a structure, a practice, or a policy that is fertile breeding ground for that equity gap, and you have to find it.” Armed with that data, leaders can now channel resources and strategies to reducing and ultimately eliminating these gaps. - Dr. Monica Parrish Trent
Two-year institutions are typically working with fewer resources than their four-year counterparts, but the examples and insights provided by Achieving the Dream show that resilience, innovation, and creativity can lead to student success in those environments. Ultimately, it’s about thinking beyond getting a student on campus and walking with them from before enrollment all the way to employment.
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Access to Innovation aims to bring you insightful and inspiring conversations with higher education leaders and visionaries from around the country. Listen to more conversations on the Mentor Collective YouTube channel.
Learn more about Achieving the Dream’s work here.