SPRING 2016
What does it mean that Great Lakes funds
ONE OF THE
NATION’S LARGEST education philanthropies?
We give deserving students a needed boost, to put the American Dream within reach!
On behalf of everyone in the Community Investments division, it’s my pleasure to share with you our second edition of Good Works. As you read it, please remember this: the grants made by Great Lakes are made possible by you. We can all take great pride in the many ways we help people be successful in their lives. If you wish to learn more about our grantmaking, please send me a note or visit our education philanthropy website at
community.mygreatlakes.org.
Amy Kerwin Vice President – Community Investments
THERE ARE MANY REASONS YOU CAN BE PROUD TO WORK AT GREAT LAKES.
As a top-rated student loan servicer we are recognized by borrowers, colleges and the Department of Education for being great at what we do. Our dedication to helping people responsibly manage their loans and successfully repay them is unmatched.
expanding our goal of “doing what’s right” for all students through our education philanthropy.
But our commitment to helping Americans achieve the dream of a college education goes far beyond that!
Your good work helps Great Lakes provide paid internships, visits from our college access advisors to high schools, scholarships, emergency grants, extra tutoring and other services designed to help get lowincome students, students of color and first-generation students to and through college.
As a non-profit organization, Great Lakes doesn’t have to return money we make to shareholders, the way other servicers do. Instead, we are free to invest profits in
Simply put, the results of your daily good work are multiplied many times over by the reach of our grantmaking!
Jihad Sabani Great Lakes employee since 2007
In this issue, you’ll learn about our three most recent philanthropy grants. While different in their approaches, they share a common goal of helping more students complete their college degree or certification. As we know from first-hand experience, students
who graduate have the easiest time repaying their loans. They also have the best chances of enjoying successful careers and better lives.
ELIMINATING THE NEED FOR TEXTBOOKS
This is happening more and more. While they’ve never been cheap, textbooks have become very expensive. Over the past decade book prices have nearly doubled, increasing at more than three times the rate of inflation. Community college students now spend about $1,100 a year on books alone. That’s on top of tuition, transportation, fees and more. For many low-income students, books have become a luxury they have to do without. But what if students could get a community college degree without ever having to buy a book? Instead, they’d access free online content that replaces books. We’re working with the Hewlett Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and other national grantmakers to explore the idea of open educational resources (OER)
degrees that don’t require a single book from start to finish. Thirty community colleges from across the country will compete for grants to “overhaul” an entire degree program, like business administration or nursing, to replace books with free online materials. In evaluating the success of this program, we’ll be looking to answer some important questions: • Do grades improve when students have course materials starting on the first day? • Can students graduate faster by using money saved on books to take more classes? • Will students graduate in greater numbers if college requires less money and time? If the results are as promising as we hope, we’ll look for ways to bring OER degrees to more colleges.
OER DEGREE INITIATIVE
Picture a college freshman in his third week of classes at a community college. His algebra instructor asks the class to open their textbook to chapter 5, but he can’t. He hasn’t been able to come up with the money to buy the textbook. He’s rapidly falling behind and on the path to failing.
Imagine a college student in her final year. She’s in a high-demand major with great job prospects. But her financial aid is maxed out, and she has no family support to help pay her last semester of tuition. Thinking she’s out of options, she drops out—without a degree, a job or anyone from the college even knowing she was struggling. While colleges understandably spend a lot of time helping new students get on the right track, there is much less focus on helping students near completion stay on track. These “nearcompleters” can face unique challenges that can derail graduation, even in the home stretch: • Financial aid runs out • Classes fill up or are offered at inconvenient times • Supplies for upper-level courses become prohibitively expensive • Childcare, transportation or other life issues get in the way The loss is compounded when students drop out of high-demand majors. They miss out on jobs paying good salaries, and employers are left with vacant positions. The negative effect of dropping out is most acute for low-income students, students of color
and first-generation students, because they have the most to gain from a college degree and face the steepest odds of getting back on track. Through our new College Completion Grant, two- and four-year colleges are invited to apply for funding to help them identify struggling students pursuing in-demand majors before they drop out and give those students the support they need to graduate. Providing students with money will address some of the issues. But we’re also asking partner colleges to correct policies and practices that trip up near-completers—things like course scheduling and required internships. In the end, we’ll be looking for successful completion strategies that colleges across the country can implement.
TO THE FINISH LINE
COLLEGE COMPLETION GRANT
GETTING “NEAR-COMPLETERS”
HELPING PART-TIME FACULTY FULLY CONNECT TO
STUDENTS
Community college students run into frustrations like this often because more than half of their classes are taught by adjunct instructors. While adjuncts typically have “real jobs” in the subjects they teach and can share valuable work experiences with students, they rarely receive training from colleges about campus services available to help students with academic, financial or personal issues—resources that can keep students from dropping out. This is a big deal. Research shows that one of the most important factors affecting a community college student’s success is interaction with instructors. Simply put: the more ways faculty members
can connect with students and take an interest in their well-being, the greater the odds students will graduate. Together with the Helmsley Trust, Great Lakes is funding a competitive grant program that will support six community colleges as they develop and evaluate new ways to 1) coach adjunct faculty members in effective teaching methods and 2) train them about campus services and issues that are important to the success of community college students. As always, we want to learn if new ideas work. So we’ll also be funding a research project to determine if the ways these six colleges are engaging adjunct faculty truly lead to higher pass rates in classes and, ultimately, higher graduation rates.
ADJUNCT FACULTY GRANT
Lastly, picture a 35-year old returning to college to complete a degree he started 15 years ago. He’s taking a night class taught by a part-time (“adjunct”) instructor and struggling to get up to speed with his classwork. He asks for extra help outside of class, but the instructor doesn’t have office hours. And when he asks about tutoring, the instructor doesn’t know what’s available on campus.
GOOD WORKS SPRING 2016
YOU’RE HELPING TRANSFORM YOUNG LIVES, SO KEEP UP THE
community.mygreatlakes.org ©2016 Great Lakes Higher Education Corporation & Affiliates. All rights reserved. (3/16)