by Nicki Thomson, PhD; Wyman’s Senior Director of Research and Learning
Wyman is committed to ensuring strong outcomes for youth, learning from our experiences, and centering the voices and perspectives of those we serve in our learning activities. With support from Missouri Scholarship & Loan Foundation (MSLF) and Wyman’s Saigh Foundation endowment, and in collaboration with Dr. Florian Sichling at UMSL, we deepened our understanding of our higher education partnerships and the practices that are effective in supporting postsecondary equity. We found that the effective ingredients of these partnerships included strong relationships at multiple levels in each organization, close monitoring of student experience and needs with regular exchange of this information, building trust between students and campus staff, and attending to students’ sense of belonging on campus.
We also know that financial aid plays a critical role in higher education access and persistence. College has become more expensive and therefore less affordable for the families of youth typically served by Wyman. Affordability is critical to addressing equity issues in postsecondary education.
Our follow-up study explored the scholarship opportunities offered to Wyman Leaders youth through Wyman’s partnerships and how those shaped their postsecondary experiences. We explored these questions:
- How do Wyman scholarship opportunities impact young people’s postsecondary enrollment and persistence?
- How does scholarship support affect the way students make decisions about their postsecondary options and future plans?
Data Sources
- We interviewed 18 Wyman Leaders participants who were currently or recently enrolled in one of Wyman’s five Missouri higher education partners schools: Missouri State University (MSU), University of Missouri-St. Louis (UMSL), Southeast Missouri State University (SEMO), University of Central Missouri (UCM), and Saint Louis University College of Education (SLU). Of the 18, the majority identified as female (78%) and as Black/African American (78%).
- We gathered perspectives from 82 Wyman Leaders alumni who completed the program between 6 and 18 years ago.
- We spoke with 12 adults including current or former Wyman staff, higher education partner staff and scholarship partner staff.
Our Findings
Wyman offers a variety of scholarship opportunities resulting in critical support and strong postsecondary outcomes for young people
Over the last 15+ years, Wyman has developed seven scholarship partnerships with universities and scholarship providers. Four scholarships are specifically available to youth who attend a Wyman-higher education partnership school: the Missouri State University/Morley Scholarship; the SEMO College Access Partnership Award; the University of Missouri-St. Louis Community Partnership Scholarship; and the Saint Louis University College of Education’s Community Partnership Scholarship. The longest standing of these, the MSU/Morley Scholarship, ensures that youth have full tuition coverage. To date, the MSU/Morley Scholarship has supported 34 young people across its 14-year history, over 85% of whom have either graduated with a degree or continue to persist toward graduation.
Additional scholarship opportunities come from partnerships with The Scholarship Foundation of St. Louis (New Era Scholarship), the Greer Foundation, and The Monticello College Foundation. Among these, the Wyman-Scholarship Foundation partnership is the longest standing, with over 15 years of generous scholarship support that has benefited 53 Wyman youth totaling an investment of nearly $2 million in their futures. The Greer Foundation-Wyman partnership, among the newest (~5 years), has thus far benefited 38 youth of color who are pursuing degrees in a STEM field or in the trades. Over 74% of youth supported by Greer funding have either graduated or continue to persist.
The rates of graduation/persistence among our scholarship recipients, which exceed national rates among young people with similar racial and economic backgrounds, are indicative of the important role that financial support plays in postsecondary access and success.
Scholarship partners are focused on addressing challenges of college affordability and emphasize the importance of funding flexibility
Considering the rapidly growing cost of higher education, financial support and scholarships are quickly becoming a critical piece in shaping educational experiences and opportunities. While several partners expressed the goal to graduate low-income students without debt as an explicit strategy to facilitate social mobility, there is also concern about the current economic return of a college degree as mentioned by a university partner:
“[…] there is no doubt that college degrees have an income premium compared to non-college degrees, but that if you look at what they call a wealth gap which brings debt into the equation, then that premium goes to almost nothing. And so, our whole goal is to do this where they get the premium from income and not have the wealth gap.”
Although this partner was the only stakeholder who explicitly referred to debt as a part of the economic calculus for or against a college degree, almost all our respondents recognized the importance of graduating and starting a career without the burden of debt.
Almost all scholarship partners also noted the significance of complementary, non-monetary support, and the need for a certain degree of flexibility in how funds are administered to be able to adequately respond to unanticipated crises or challenges.
“So, we issue micro grants to students if they have one-time emergencies or have one-time opportunities that they can’t take advantage of without a little bit of additional financial assistance. We have a mental healthcare program. And so, we’re paying for students to go to therapy for up to 24 sessions per year.”
While some of the funding opportunities available to Wyman students are tied to specific demographic groups or majors, a current scholarship partner noted the importance of being open to students’ exploration of majors as an important part of their educational experience:
“I don’t think it’s really fair to ask 18-year-olds to know what they want to do the rest of their life. Particularly 18-year-olds who haven’t been exposed to a lot of things that others might have been exposed to…Part of growing up is exploring.”
Given the importance of a certain degree of openness or flexibility in how these funds are administered, it is interesting to note that this type of adaptability may also be the outcome of the Wyman partnerships. Notably these partnerships have evolved over time as students’ needs change, and as the partners have developed mutual respect for the expertise of each organization. For example, not only do these partnerships require financial expertise and technical knowledge, but given the backgrounds of the students served, they also demand a sophisticated understanding of youth development and education in the context of social and economic barriers. This type of mutual recognition and respect is apparent, as an example, in the partnership between Wyman and the Scholarship Foundation.
“First and foremost, it [Wyman] is one of our strongest partnerships, I think, with a lot of mutual respect for the expertise of each organization, what each organization brings to the table, and how we can really support one another and leverage that support. I mean, we know that we have a lot of financial expertise to bring to the table for students as they navigate the financial aid process. We don’t have some of the same youth development leadership building skills that are a hallmark of the programming that Wyman does. And so, I think, that recognition that each organization has strengths, the respect that we have for one another is one of the biggest wins […].”
Ultimately, respect for each partner’s expertise results in greater access to support for students.
Wyman Leaders alumni & current youth stress the importance of financial support to their educational pursuits and future financial stability
Most of the Wyman alumni interviewed graduated with a bachelor’s degree but also carried some amount of educational debt. Many also mentioned the importance of non-financial support such as on-campus visits they received from Wyman staff, or help with applying for financial aid, in contributing to their ability to attend college and transition to their subsequent careers.
The overall pattern is captured in the following reflection by an alumnus who earned a bachelor’s degree, still has student debt, and plans to attend graduate school:
“In our cohort, when we graduated, they {Wyman] awarded like one scholarship…and I got that…so, by the time I was like a junior for sure like [at the] beginning of junior year, I was very focused on you know getting all those scholarships starting to look for those and finding out what programs were available at different schools and doing college tours and I think that I was, I felt pretty supported by Wyman throughout that whole process.”
By contrast, one respondent who did not end up earning a college degree specifically mentioned the accumulation of debt as the main reason for discontinuing their education.
“I went to Colorado State University, which was a fight…but I got there, and my family didn’t have a whole lot of money. And even with my grants and scholarships, it was just a little too much. So, I decided to take a break from school. And at one point, I finally decided, I don’t even want to do that. I can’t even afford undergrad.”
All current students who had scholarships clearly acknowledged the significance of this support for their educational experience. One of the most important effects of financial support was that students did not have to worry about paying down debt or taking on work to pay for current college expenses. The ability to earn scholarships and financial support also improved students’ self-confidence:
“I just have to think like me getting the scholarship, I got it because I’m me. And this is what I brought to the table. Somebody saw something in me, and I’m so grateful for that. And you know if I can do that, I can do anything.”
Those respondents who were about to graduate at the time of their interview not only expressed a deep sense of relief at being able to graduate without the burden of college debt, but also had a very optimistic outlook on their future.
“But then, as I’m graduating college, I’m like everything I’ve gone through, everything I’ve done has been possible because of Wyman, because I’m graduating college without any debt. Partly because Wyman connected me to the right people like the foundations. If I didn’t have them, I wouldn’t know about the Scholarship Foundation. I wouldn’t apply to all the scholarships that I applied to and got them, and probably would have been hundreds and thousands of dollars in debt. Now, I’m graduating college a year early. No debt. I have a whole career set up outside, and I’m like, okay. I made all the right connections because of Wyman, and they gave me the resources to be successful post-secondary and into my professional life.”
Key Takeaways
- Scholarship opportunities for young people from low-income families, like those served by Wyman Leaders, are increasingly important as the cost of obtaining a college degree continues to rise faster than wages. Graduating students without debt is critical to facilitating social and economic mobility.
- Flexibility in the administration of scholarships and providing complementary support is necessary for an adequate response to student challenges and needs. This type of flexibility may result from the partnerships between Wyman and its scholarship and university partners, where each contributes valuable expertise to enhance and support the educational experiences of youth facing social and economic barriers. Given the growing complexities of funding higher education, financial expertise is an indispensable component of these partnerships. But financial expertise alone will not lead to successful outcomes. A keen understanding of youth’s lived experience and the dynamics of youth development are also necessary to enhance the efficacy of financial support.
- The strength of Wyman’s scholarship partnerships is both an outcome of the work these organizations engage in and a predictor of how youth experience the support provided. Strong partnerships are characterized by close relationships, consistent and open communication, buy-in across all levels of each organization, and mutual respect for the expertise that each organization contributes. Provision of financial support within the context of strong partnerships is likely to be most effective in supporting youth in their postsecondary journeys.
- From the youth’s perspectives, financial support eased the worry about debt, strengthened their self-esteem and led to a more positive outlook on their futures. This underscores the continued need for flexibility in both the design and administration of scholarships, as well as the critical importance of regularly re-visiting partnership MOUs to ensure they are structured to best meet the needs of the youth they are intended to support.
