Chancellor Randy Woodson and other university officials met with President Barack Obama at the White House last week to discuss a new proposal to help students, who don’t have a family history of higher education, go to college.
In Washington D.C., Woodson announced the College Pipeline Initiative, which is a joint effort between N.C. State, UNC-Chapel Hill and Davidson College. It will place 60-70 recent college graduates in high schools around the state to improve graduation rates and encourage students to apply to college.
According to Woodson a national college “access issue” exists in which a large percentage of young people in the upper income quartile attend and graduate college, compared to a very small percentage of students born into families in the lower quartile.
“The President and First Lady have challenged university chancellors around the country to solve the problem of getting people who don’t have a family history of higher education to attend college,” Woodson said. “Most colleges, like N.C. State, have outstanding financial aid programs, but those only work if students apply and get admitted. The pipeline is all about encouraging young people to work hard in high school so college is more than a dream, it can be a reality.”
Woodson said the initiative started with a call from the White House in early December and a proposal from the John M. Belk Endowment to work with UNC-CH and Davidson.
“[Starting the College Pipeline Initiative] was a collaborative effort, but the Belk endowment really stimulated the conversation by encouraging us to work together,” Woodson said. “It was a combination of the three universities wanting to work together and the Belk endowment wanting to support.”
The Belk endowment will provide a three-year, $10 million grant to start the initiative, and will continue to fund the initiative if it’s successful, according to Woodson.
“Essentially, it’s a three-year grant to test this hypothesis to see if it has an impact on helping low income students get into college,” Woodson said. “It’s built like Teach For America, but in this case we’re partnering with the College Advising Corps.”
Woodson said recent college graduates will be sent to rural high schools across the state because they have experience applying to college and graduating. In many cases, parents of the high school students that the program is meant to target don’t know enough about college to guide them.
“A large number of students are first-generation college students, and one of things this pipeline effort will attempt to do is help young people realize that they have many options,” Woodson said. “For many low-income students, their parents aren’t equipped to advise them on where to apply. It’s not unusual that you’ll have really bright students form rural North Carolina that wouldn’t even apply to N.C. State or UNC-Chapel Hill because they think they can’t afford it, and they’re just not prepared to apply.”
Woodson added that these student advisors would support counselors now who are responsible for hundreds of students each and are overwhelmed at these schools around the state.
In addition, the pipeline counselors will be closer in age and experience to high-school students, Woodson said, which will allow them to be good mentors.
“The idea is not to replace high school counselors but to augment and support them,” Woodson said.
Woodson and UNC-CH Chancellor, Carol Folt, traveled to the nation’s capitol on Air Force One after Obama came to N.C. State last Wednesday.
“It was a huge honor for the President to invite me on Air Force One,” Woodson said. “[Obama] learned I would be at the White House the next day and invited Carol Folt and I along for the ride.”
The meeting was held in the adjacent executive office next to the west wing, Woodson said. About 50 university presidents, representatives from non-profit organizations and other government agencies were in attendance.
