First Opportunity Partners

Improving service to “first opportunity students” is the Foundation’s “signature initiative.”  Its purpose is to encourage and support private colleges and universities in effectively serving first generation, low-income, minority and new American students. The initiative responds to rapidly changing demographics which project a growing challenge facing educational institutions in the United States.

First Opportunity Partners is rooted in both the challenge presented by rapidly-changing demographics in the United States and in the success of private colleges in successfully serving students from underrepresented groups.  Private colleges and universities serve First Opportunity students in roughly the same percentage as four-year public institutions.  Yet, statistics by the U.S. Department of Education clearly demonstrate that private colleges retain and graduate First Opportunity students at significantly superior rates to their public counterparts.  Thus, this initiative aims to build on a strength of private colleges.

First Opportunity Partners seeks the support of foundations and corporations to undertake new approaches to preparing, enrolling, retaining and graduating the targeted student populations.  The program will fund scholarships for highly needy students and provide matching grants to state associations of private colleges to undertake collaborative ventures aimed at increasing access and improving success.  Promising new ventures are already underway in several states:   to improve First Opportunity students’ preparation for college; to broaden outreach efforts; to aid families of first generation students in the college planning process; to expand public awareness of the implications of the growing demographic challenge; and to assist colleges in improving retention of First Opportunity students.

It is important to note, however, that private colleges individually have always undertaken activities in line with the goals of First Opportunity Partners; that is, they have programs aimed directly at increasing access and success.  In addition, virtually all private colleges contribute significant institutional resources to financing education for First Opportunity students.  However, since private colleges are almost all small and most lack the level of public visibility of their public counterparts, their individual efforts in serving First Opportunity students are not well known – either in their communities or among those who make public policy.  First Opportunity Partners aims to change that; to not only raise the quality and quantity of efforts providing increased access and success to First Opportunity students, but also to raise public awareness of the contributions of private colleges in an area of significant national interest.

Collaboration is a key strategy in engaging our institutions in this effort.  For example, we're using collaboration to build college readiness programs aimed at at-risk youth, and we're nurturing relationships with community service organizations to help our institutions broaden their reach into underserved communities.  We're starting mentoring programs to support at-risk students in our institutions, and we're targeting minority students for summer research projects.  In short, First Opportunity Partners aims to encourage innovation through collaboration.

A key strategy for the First Opportunity Partners is its Venture Fund Program.