Kessler Collaborative Breaks Down Silos to Help First-Generation Students

What started as an innovative program to support limited-income and first-generation students at the University of Michigan in 2008 has since grown into a 16-institution collaborative program that has helped hundreds of first-generation students across the country find success in post-secondary education.

The Kessler Scholars Program, known as the Kessler Scholars Collaborative since 2020, is a cohort-based program that supports first-generation students on their journeys towards their bachelor’s degrees, through direct interventions like academic, personal, and peer counseling, and outside classroom activities that seek to expand students’ leadership capabilities and sense of belonging.

The latest report on academic year 2022 and 2023, conducted by the nonprofit academic community organization Ithaka S+R, hopes to shine a light on just how many students have been positively impacted by these best-practices, and how institutions outside the Collaborative can replicate them.

Dr. Ifeatu Oliobi, researcher with the Education Transformation Team at Ithaka S+R.“That’s one of the explicit goals of the program, to adopt a collective impact approach, to break down silos, and facilitate practice-sharing,” said Dr. Ifeatu Oliobi, a researcher with the Education Transformation Team at Ithaka S+R. “Institutions, sometimes one-man teams, don’t always have access to resources. The Collaborative gets all these talented, experienced individuals working towards the same goals and providing platforms to bring challenges together and learn from each other.”

Almost half of postsecondary students are first-generation, the first in their families to pursue a bachelor’s degree, according to the Center for First-Generation Student Success. Yet they are also 71% more likely to stop out before the end of their first year. They are also more than 50% less likely to complete within four years, compared to their counterparts. First-generation students are often less able to rely on familial financial supports, have more responsibilities in their personal lives, and are less academically prepared for college during high school. They can suffer from feeling as though they do not belong at institutions of higher education.

According to the newest analysis, 94% of students who participated in the program said the support “met or exceeded their expectations,” and a whopping 98% reported they benefitted from the program’s assistance. The majority of the 450 students (53%) identified as minoritized populations, mostly Latinx.

The staff who serve these students don’t just sympathize with them — sixty-five percent of the 45 program staffers leading campus programs were once first-generation students themselves. Fifty-six percent identify as women, and 60% belong to historically underrepresented racial or ethnic groups.