Best Practices for Promoting College Student Success

On Demand Webinar: Learn proven ways to develop and implement successful student success strategies. College Possible’s eight free on-demand webinars provide actionable items that enable leaders like you to retain and inspire more students from underserved backgrounds.


Empowering Equitable College Persistence in Remarkable Times

According to Inside Higher Education, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has been felt most by students of color.

University Leaders assemble to discuss the biggest challenges facing their institutions and share success stories they’ve experienced in supporting equitable persistence in a post-pandemic world.

Some of our many attending participantsSome of our many attending participants

  • Recognize bright spots of persistence among first-generation and Pell recipient students
  • Understand the biggest opportunities for sustained persistence gains, particularly among first-generation and students of color
  • Learn how to leverage partnerships to close the attainment gap

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Partnering to Drive Better Retention

Learn how California State University, Stanislaus is leveraging strategic partnerships to support more equitable student outcomes.

Hear from Gabriela Nuño, Director of the Academic Success Center at CSU Stanislaus and unpack the strategic partnerships they used to achieve meaningful student retention outcomes on their campuses in California’s Central Valley. 

Gabriela Nuño discusses the importance of partnerships at Stan State

  • Understand how to better support more first-generation college students and students from low-income backgrounds as they persist through degree completion 
  • Learn proven techniques shared by the innovative partnership between Stan State, College Possible’s Catalyze program and the trailblazing community-based Stockton Service Corps as they discuss evidence-based, near-peer coaching and support for this critical segment of students

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Driving Student Success

Become a catalyst for increasing the success of students from low-income backgrounds at your institution. Explore how near-peer coaching programs like Catalyze mobilize successful student outcomes across campuses nationwide. 

Mary Lawman discusses how the Coach-Supervisor relationship works in a near-peer model

  • Understand how near-peer coaching can be implemented as either a new or complementing student success strategy
  • Explore how to launch near-peer coaching within existing infrastructure and support resources
  • Learn how near-peer coaches are trained and mobilized to do their work and efficiently interact with the institution’s staff

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Welcoming Students Back

Hear how campuses are innovating to support a safe return to in-person campus student life using near-peer coaches.

Dr. Lisa Holstrom discusses lessons and takeaways from pandemic-era initiatives at UC

  • Obtain best practices for working with students from low income backgrounds during this unique and challenging time
  • See how near-peer coaches leverage relationships that connect students to in-demand resources on campus and in their communities
  • Leave with an understanding of how to leverage near-peer coaches to provide innovative solutions to student retention and respond to rapidly changing needs

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Eliminating Hidden Obstacles: Tactics for Improving Student Persistence in Higher Education

Dig deep and learn proven tactics aimed at improving student persistence to degree completion. Consider actions that address deeper inequities faced by historically marginalized students both on campus and in the larger system. Hear directly from the voices of those who have persisted and grow inspired with valuable takeaways to implement right away.

Dr. Ashley Rondini discusses ways institutions can better serve first-generation students

  • Explore their journeys, the mechanisms that helped them persist, and the hidden barriers that continue to challenge their (and other students’) persistence
  • Learn from one of our Catalyze coaches the hidden barriers they have seen students overcome
  • Acquire a macro-level view of the landscape impacting our student’s persistence

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University Leaders Talk Retention Strategies for Underserved Students During COVID

University leaders share how their student success intervention strategies have changed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Learn practical, high-impact tactics your staff can use to increase retention rates during COVID.

Dr. Amy Gort discusses strategies used during the pandemic to improve student success

  • Define strategies that better serve students from first-generation and low-income backgrounds impacted by the pandemic
  • Find new ways to help distressed students stay engaged and stay on track to graduate

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Empowering Success: A Near-Peer Coaching Discussion

Hear directly from College Possible Catalyze near-peer coaches as they share the real-life experiences and challenges of students they support.

Dr. Lisa Holstrom discusses how data supports near-peer coaching model

  • Understand the powerful role that near-peer coaching plays in helping students overcome these barriers and persist in fulfilling their goal of a college degree
  • Identify how to graduate more students from low-income backgrounds using a near-peer coach that provides relatable and recent expertise in navigating the systemic and institutional barriers they face daily

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Investing in Brilliance:  Empowering Students from Low-Income Backgrounds

Campus Leaders and College Possible Catalyze coaches gather to share real-world, practical insights and proven strategies to support persistence among students from low-income backgrounds.

Dr. Lisa Holstrom discusses choosing Catalyze's near-peer coaching model

  • Learn to achieve better retention rates and keep students on track
  • Understand the uniqueness of near-peer coaches
  • Develop ideas for adapting student support services
  • Identify student-level data that can be utilized to improve retention rates

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WHITE PAPER: “Persist: Near-Peer Coaching’s Impact in Closing the College Completion Gap”

Catalyze near-peer coaches help students from low-income backgrounds persist through degree completion. Download the white paper and you will:

  • Learn how the systemic challenges that affect college retention among students from low-income backgrounds have grown due to the COVID-19 pandemic
  • Understand how near-peer coaches can effectively augment existing student services to help address the most common barriers to college completion
  • Explore how the University of Cincinnati used Catalyze to boost semester-to-semester and year-to-year retention among Pell recipient students

Download our White Paper

Click Here to Download


About College Possible: As one of the largest and most successful college access and success programs in the country, since 2000 College Possible has helped put more than 59,000 students from disinvested communities on the path to economic mobility via completion of a college degree.

Its proven near-peer coaching model, delivered by recent college graduates serving as AmeriCorps members, provides high-touch interventions proven to help students navigate and overcome the most common barriers to college access, retention and degree completion. Nationwide, College Possible students are three times more likely to earn a bachelor's degree within six years than their peers from similar backgrounds.

Headquartered in Saint Paul, MN, College Possible operates: regional sites in Chicago, IL; Milwaukee, WI; Omaha, NE; Philadelphia, PA; Portland, OR; and Seattle, WA; College Forward in Austin, WA; and has Catalyze partnerships in California, Iowa, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, and Tennessee. Learn more at CollegePossible.org.

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