HBS Skydeck: Boosting Community College Outcomes

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Narrator: Arti depelia's parents emigrated to the United States from Uganda, fleeing the regime of dictator IDI Amin. It's the classic immigrant story, she says. They arrived with a few suitcases, $50 in cash, and their education, something they told her no one could ever take away. That lesson made an impact on Copelia. So did her experience tutoring students at under resourced high schools in her native Chicago and and seeing her mother upgrade her skills at a local community college. After HBS, DePelio worked as a consultant, but quickly realized that her passion lay in bridging the opportunity gap that exists in education. After serving in leadership positions with Chicago Public Schools, National Lewis University and City colleges of Chicago, DePelio was named CEO of 1 Million Degrees, a nonprofit that supports community college students on their path to economic mobility. In this episode of Sky Deck, depeglia talks to Associate Editor Julia Hanna about the organization's model, why its graduates make such desirable employees, and what keeps her going.

Julia Hanna: I wonder if you can start just by telling us a little bit about why you were drawn to this space of public education and community college support.

Arti DePelio: My interest in community colleges specifically really emerged over the past decade in a big way. Though personally I will say like I remember back in the 1980s, my mom enrolling at our local community college to take some cor to help her reenter the workforce after taking time off after my brother and I had been born. And it made a huge difference for her and our family at that time economically. And I remember thinking like, how neat is that that there's this college option just down the street that can help you do that. And then as I've been working in higher education over the past decade and honestly I've observed the lack of affordability, the lack of accessibility, right. The lack of professional focus of so many four year institutions. Personally, I've come to the conclusion that I believe community colleges are far too often overlooked and underestimated as viable paths to economic mobility. And I think in a moment that we live in now where so many people are questioning the cost of college and demanding more ROI from college. I'd like to see community colleges be seen as a bold first choice for prospective college students rather than a last resort because they offer local, career focused, affordable, open access education that you can pursue while working, working and or taking care of family. The reality is 10 million students nationwide are in community colleges now. That's half of all undergraduate college students across the nation. So I genuinely believe we can transform millions of people's lives by fueling stronger outcomes in community colleges nationwide, and that's what I've been focused on trying to do for the past several years.

Julia Hanna: Research from the University of Chicago shows that OMD scholars are 94% more likely to continue from the fall to spring semester in their first year of college and 73% more likely to earn a degree when compared to students not participating in the program before coming to omd, Dupelia saw UH, the nuts and bolts of how that success happened when she worked as Chief Student Experience Officer of City Colleges of Chicago, a client of OMDs. She explains that the heart of the organization's model is a dedicated program coordinator who meets with students every two to four weeks to provide encouragement and ensure students have access to tutoring, counseling and professional development workshops focused on topics like resume writing and interviewing skills. Beyond that, OMD builds partnerships with potential employers, matching students to paid internships. And finally, students receive financial support, earning stipends as they complete different academic and career milestones. It all adds up to feeling like part of a cohort and having a sense of belonging, says Dupelia, which makes it less likely that students will fall through the cracks.

Arti DePelio: So I did a scholar focus group last weekend at uh, one of the seven city Colleges of Chicago, and one of the scholars said to me that what she liked about our program is simply that OMD puts the community in community college, right? And similarly, at one of my prior institutions, when I was working at National Lewis University, which accepted many OMD scholars as transfer students after they graduated from city colleges, I remember asking a student who was about to walk across the graduation stage and earn his bachelor's degree. I asked him, who or what helped you reach this goal? And he said it was actually my OMD program coordinator who kept me going even when I thought I couldn't make it through. So building on the strength of that evidence, OMD has grown significantly over the past few years from serving 650 students just three years ago. Now we're on track to serve 3,000 students in 2026 in Chicago and then beyond Chicago. We've also launched an advisory and capacity building team that's focused on training community colleges to embed our model, um, over and how they support students.

Julia Hanna: What does success look like for you as CEO? I know you've just started, but what are you working on in the years ahead?

Arti DePelio: I would say a few things. One is of course, just continued growth and impact. Right. So growing scholars served in Chicago and nationwide and just continuing to experiment with new strategies to strengthen our model and grow student outcomes. So things like strengthening our transfer advising and career advising practices. So we've done a great job of driving students persistence and completion. So to really live out our economic mobility mission, I want to do even more and help students bridge to their next step after college. The second thing I think we hear from organizations everywhere is we need to figure out how to leverage AI to make our work more effective. And for us, it's how do we make our student support model more effective. So for example, predictive analytics can help us prioritize students for higher touch support, which helps our case managers, our program coordinators, better focus their time. I think the second thing I would say is just growing the organization's voice as a leader in community college work to really be seen as a partner of choice, the partner of choice to community college systems and philanthropy because we drive impact and we get stuff done quickly and effectively in a higher education sector that we all know has a reputation for being slow moving. And the third thing I would simply say is I want to ensure we establish ourselves as a high performance team and a great place to work because our people are the heartbeat of our work with our scholars. And I always think success when leaving any leadership role after many years in that role is being confident that the work and the team will not only sustain themselves, but also advance to even greater heights. Beyond my tenure there and having an exceptional team and work environment, uh, is core to that, I believe.

Julia Hanna: I feel like the discussion around community colleges is often very focused on upskilling. Do you think there's still room for taking classes in areas that are more in the liberal arts vein? Those are often credited with developing analytical skills, so seem to have some value as well. But I just wonder where you stand on that.

Arti DePelio: To me, it is, it is a both and situation. It's not an either or. Not only is there room for taking classes less vocational in nature, but I would also like to myth bust here. Um, the reality is that 80% of students enrolled in community college nationwide have a goal of transferring to a university and earning a bachelor's degree, not of going straight into the workforce after community college based on vocational training they pursued, whether that is in a liberal arts major like English, or a more professionally focused major in accounting or computer science or social work. Um, these are all students who want to earn a bachelor's degree and who chose community college as their first step in college. And there are also, to your point, community college students who intend to go into a job right after studying a vocation, whether that is through earning an industry recognized certification like in medical assisting or manufacturing, or a career focused associate degree. Right. Nursing or culinary arts, for example. And those are all fine choices too. Um, and in all of these cases, community colleges should also be aligning their curriculum to the needs of their local employers and the best systems do. I also want to name that it's important to call out that universities need to do a better job of accepting credit from community colleges. So I think many universities still, um, have work to do in getting off their high horse that they are superior in suggesting that English 101 is harder and different than English 101 at the community college nearby. I would like to think that as more folks demand affordability in college and as we see a decline in the number of college going students in the decade ahead, given the demographic cliff that we're facing, I think universities will need to be more welcoming of transfer students, if not for a moral reason than, um, at least for an economic reason, to maintain their enrollment.

Julia Hanna: What do you think potential employers need to know about community college graduates, especially those who are OMD alumni?

Arti DePelio: I love that question. So honestly, the community college students I meet are far more impressive and interesting than I ever was as an undergraduate at a private four year university. And I would hire them over the 20 year old version of me in a heartbeat. So that's the first thing I want people to know. But I think lots of companies miss out on talented community college graduates when they aren't open minded about where they recruit. So what I see is community college students bringing determination and resilience in the face of obstacles. So for example, at City Colleges of Chicago last year, 50% of students reported being food insecure. And, and still these students are showing up to class and working hard despite their hunger, making it hard for them to focus while they're in class. And most community college students are working while they're in school because they have to in order to support themselves and in some cases their families. So to me that shows an ability to multitask, to balance many responsibilities, to thrive in different environments, to Work with people to solve problems bigger than what you'll see in a book or a classroom. We also have many community college students who are caretakers of their own children or siblings or aging parents. So there is again, a set of skills and humanity that make these students more whole people than a traditional full time student who just went straight to college from high school and studied hard for four years and had some fun and then got a job. Right. So, you know, as an employer, I see community college students bringing so many assets and diverse perspectives that would enrich my organization. We have a student named Paul who is a thriving 1 million degree scholar. He came to Kennedy King College and the City Colleges of Chicago a few years ago ago after attempting an out of state four year university, um, and realized it wasn't the right fit for him. So after Covid hit, he found himself just unable to keep up with the classes at his institution as they moved online and he needed to move back home to Chicago. So this could have been a moment where he gave up, but he didn't. He ended up enrolling at City Colleges where he found the OMD program as well. And so since then he's completed multiple career connected learning programs through our partnerships with employers and funders, and he is thriving. While in school this summer, he just completed internship with Relativity, uh, one of OMD's employer partners. And he's looking to transfer and earn a bachelor's degree. Harvard may even be on his wish list actually. So his story is one example of how we can fundamentally shift a student's trajectory. Another student I'll share is Shirley. So Shirley was born and raised in Englewood on the south side of Chicago, which is one of our most under resourced communities in Chicago. And at 61 years old, she is now back in school and working towards her bachelor's degree. Sadly, Shirley Locke, both a son and a nephew to gun violence. And that grief is what pushed her to want to be a part of changing her community. So with support from both Kennedy king College and 1 million degrees, she earned her associate degree in political science last year. And her OMD program coordinator was the one there for her. He encouraged her every step of the way, even taking weekend calls from her when she was struggling with classes and with technology. She is now at Northeastern Illinois University pursuing her bachelor's degree and has a 4.0 GPA. And she's studying justice studies and urban community studies. And she wants to enter politics and help reduce gun violence and support young people and expand second chance opportunities for people reentering society. So this just gives you a sense of the breadth of perspective and experience and passion and skills that our students bring, as well as how OMD being there as a support system can help community college students really accelerate towards their goals. And I think about, gosh, how many students like them are overlooked because employers aren't considering community college students. So I hope we can shift that mindset going forward.

Julia Hanna: You know, you've chosen a field that is not easy. I wonder what keeps you going.

Arti DePelio: It's passion for the mission. I think any leader entering this work needs to be very clear on their why. And I've always seen the impact that the education I have had has had on my career and my life and that it had on m my parents life. And so it's something that I've just grown to fundamentally believe is a right that everyone should have access to. Like many of us HBS grads, I'm someone who spends a lot of my time working. And so I want it to be something that I'm really passionate about, that even when times get tough, I can say, okay, but this mission is really important. I need to keep going. I need to keep going. And so having clarity of passion around my purpose in this work is what keeps me going.

Narrator: Skydeck is the Harvard Business School Alumni Podcast, featuring interviews and insights from across the world of business. It's produced by the External relations department at HBS. Our audio engineer is Craig McDonald. It is available on Apple, Spotify and wherever you get your favorite podcasts. And if you could take a moment to rate and review us, we'd be grateful. For more information or to find archived episodes, visit alumni hbs. Edu Skydeck.