External Evaluation Shows More than 95% of Kessler Scholars Seniors Engaged in High-Impact Practices that Contribute to Degree Completion, Success After Graduation
“It would not be possible to have these unique experiences without the Kessler Scholars Program’s support.”
Kessler Scholars from the University of Michigan receive their stoles and gifts for graduation.
(May 1, 2025 | Ann Arbor, MI) This commencement season, the Kessler Scholars Collaborative is marking its largest graduating class to date with an expected 124 seniors completing bachelor’s degrees across seven partner campuses. Guided by the cohort-based, comprehensive support model of the Kessler Scholars Program, these trailblazing students are challenging national data that for too long has shown lagging degree completion and low engagement in high-impact learning practices among first-generation college students.
Kessler Scholars in the Class of 2025 instead have embraced opportunities such as internships, research, and study abroad – experiences that have been shown to increase student retention and completion and promote success beyond graduation. In a survey conducted this spring by external evaluators, more than 95 percent of program seniors said they participated in one or more high-impact practices during their college career, and about one-half of this year’s seniors said they had engaged in as many as five distinct high-impact learning experiences.
Those outcomes demonstrate how the model of the Kessler Scholars program can help to disrupt patterns where students who are among the first in their families to pursue a four-year college degree graduate at lower rates than their peers who grew up in households with parents who attained a bachelor’s degree and are less likely to pursue intensive learning and co-curricular activities that can support success outcomes. Built around evidence-based best practices for college student success, the Kessler Scholars Program combines financial support for students with distinctive, cohort-based activities and proactive, individualized guidance, all designed to reinforce students’ sense of belonging and elevate their unique strengths.
“Our support model focuses on transforming the entire college experience for first-generation college students from lower-income families,” said Gail Gibson, executive director of the Kessler Scholars Collaborative, which guides campus-based Kessler Scholars Programs at 16 colleges and universities. “Being the first person in your family to earn a college degree is an incredible achievement, and we know the odds of that happening increase when students feel a strong sense of belonging on campus and when they have opportunities to pursue enriching experiences that help them achieve their academic and professional goals.”
Kessler Scholars from Syracuse University Class of 2025 gather to celebrate graduation.
Guidance from the Kessler Scholars Program led Xiao Lin Zheng, a graduating senior from Syracuse University, to participate in an immersive summer research program led by the University of Michigan’s Rackham Graduate School as well as a study abroad program in London. Those opportunities, Zheng said, broadened her sense of the world and her professional goals, and she said, “It would not be possible for me to have these unique experiences without the Kessler Scholars Program’s support.”
In addition to the graduating cohort that Zheng is part of at Syracuse, Kessler Scholars Programs at Cornell University, Johns Hopkins University, Queens College, St. Francis College, and the University of Michigan are recognizing senior cohorts as they reach graduation and join a Kessler Scholars alumni community of more than 500 program graduates.
Commencement season also marks milestones for two additional partner institutions in the Kessler Scholars Collaborative:
- At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Kessler Scholars Program, which launched in fall 2023 to support first-generation students from rural areas, is proudly celebrating its first graduate. Haley Chavis is completing her undergraduate degree in just two years, having earned early college credits through a community college dual enrollment program in her hometown of Lumberton, NC. Chavis will next pursue a graduate degree in nursing at Duke University.
- The University of Dayton, which leads a Kessler Scholars Program designed to support student transfer and degree completion in concert with nearby Sinclair Community College, is honoring eight Kessler Scholars expected to complete their associate’s degrees. They are enrolling this fall as upper-level students at Dayton – the first Kessler Scholars to complete transfer between the two institutions since the program’s start in fall 2023.
Kessler Scholars from Cornell University receive their stoles.
The University of Dayton and UNC were among 10 institutions that joined the Kessler Scholars Collaborative in 2022 as part of a unique partnership with the American Talent Initiative (ATI) to promote college access and success for high-achieving students from lower-income families. These Kessler Scholars partner campuses also include: Bates College, Brown University, Centre College, Saint Mary’s College (IN), The Ohio State University, University of California Riverside, University of Pittsburgh, and Washington University in St. Louis.
These 10 partner institutions will welcome their third cohorts of Kessler Scholars in fall 2025, bringing the projected national enrollment of Kessler Scholars across 16 partner institutions to more than 1,300. This growing initiative is generously supported by the Judy and Fred Wilpon Family Foundation, which established the first Kessler Scholars Program at the University of Michigan, and by Bloomberg Philanthropies — the Collaborative is grateful for the commitment of our funding partners to expanding opportunity through education.
The multi-institution work of the Kessler Scholars Collaborative draws on the model of collective impact, allowing schools to work together to outperform national student success data for first-generation students rather than working in isolation or competition. National education research group Ithaka S+R leads the external evaluation of this initiative, and campus-based program leaders come together regularly to share best practices and promote student engagement with a broad network of fellow first-generation scholars.
Learn more: Follow the News & Media page to read profiles of Kessler Scholars seniors as they reach graduation, and learn more here about the Kessler Scholars Program. This work would not be possible without the support of the Wilpon Family Foundation and Bloomberg Philanthropies.
Contact us: Connect with Executive Director Gail Gibson to learn more or for media inquiries at ggibson@kesslerscholars.org
