An attorney by training, Geronimo Rodriguez currently serves as the Chief Advocacy Officer for Ascension Texas, one of the leading non-profit and Catholic healthcare systems in the United States. Previously, he served as Counsel to the Solicitor at the U.S. Department of Labor, overseeing 140 labor and employment laws in the United States during th...

As an educator, it’s been my privilege to support students investing in their future by attending college. Many students share aspirations of being the first in their family to graduate college and dreams of a fulfilling career and improved financial stability.   A college degree is the surest path available for students from low-income backgrou...

With more than 30 years of experience in higher education, Dr. Tonjua Williams is recognized nationally as an expert in student development. She has a passion for helping others realize their potential and has made it her personal mission to do so through her community outreach and higher education career. “I believe everybody’s worth the&helli...

Our country has shifted its conversation from college access to college completion as the new measure of success, sometimes overlooking the fundamental premise that you have to start to finish. Or, as they say when the Powerball jackpot nears record amounts, “You gotta be in it to win it.” Talent is everywhere, opportunity is not.…

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…

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,…

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…

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...

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 ...

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 initia...

In an interview with Training Industry, Emily Bouck West argues that stakeholders and policymakers should work to build stronger linkages between the higher education and workforce systems.

Higher Learning Advocates is working to shift federal policy from higher education to higher learning—education and training beyond high school that leads to a degree, credential, or employment. While more students are participating in higher education than ever before, there is a vast and growing disconnect between federal policy and the needs o...