Dr. Jasmine Haywood
In its 2021 report HBCUs Transforming Generations: Social Mobility Outcomes for HBCU Alumni, UNCF, (the United Negro College Fund) detailed the Move into Middle Class+ mobility rate and its efficiency as a measure of social mobility for Black students at HBCUs.
Many HBCU students are first-generation college students and many are Pell Grant recipients from low income families. Social mobility has become a focal point in measuring and understanding the return on investment for students and their families.
“Earlier this year, Lumina rolled out a new goal … and at the heart of that new goal is credentials of value,” said Dr. Jasmine Haywood, strategy director, credentials of value, the Lumina Foundation. “By 2040, we want 75% of working age adults to hold a quality credential that leads to a good job. The rollout of this new goal represents a deliberate evolution … in thinking about educational attainment. … Ensuring that a post-secondary degree delivers on real value in the labor market, especially for the students that we care most about so that it leads to a more just society.”
Julian Thompson
Julian Thompson, senior director of strategy for UNCF’s Institute for Capacity Building, is aware that all of higher education is under attack from a values perspective, and this must be thoroughly addressed or it will have significant impact on government, philanthropic, industry and corporate decision making.
“As a strategy, we at the Institute for Capacity Building are paying great attention to where decision makers, those with power and influence, are placing their attention,” said Thompson. "These types of movements and engagements can start to galvanize opportunities for HBCUs that are engaged and aligned."
