Forming a Coalition to Help Students Get a Higher Education

When it comes to college access and outreach, there are many different organizations and individuals doing their best to make sure every student in North Carolina has an opportunity for a higher education. But the job is hard, and sometimes it can be easy to put your head down, concentrate on the work, and forget that there is an ecosystem of like-minded individuals who can do together what no one can do alone.

That’s where Eric Klein and JennieV. Sorrells come in. Klein was formerly Associate Director for Precollege Outreach and Success at University of North Carolina Asheville and Sorrells is the director of Project Discovery-Talent Search at Western Carolina University. The two both work in the field and both were running into the same stark fact.

“I was traveling around western North Carolina bumping into people that did very similar tasks to what I was doing,” Klein describes as he reflected back to summer 2023. “And to a certain degree, we were stepping on each other’s toes.”

Left to right, Kim Case, Devon McCarthy-James, Eric Klein, JennieV. Sorrells and Emily Nicholson. Photo credit: Cesar Sanchez.

So, he started looking around and trying to map out all the groups doing similar work and invite as many of them together as he could for lunch back in September 2023.

The meeting went well and there was a lot of energy. By the time the group met again at Mars Hill University the next spring, Sorrells and Klein, at Sorrells’ prompting, had submitted an application to Dogwood Health Trust to support the work the group was doing.

“A lot of funding has hit Western North Carolina to support students as they apply to and persist through post-secondary education,” he said. “What hadn’t happened was coordination of those services or those initiatives.”

With the help of Dogwood, that could start to change.

Sorrells and Klein got the grant and used it to hold a large-scale convening of Western North Carolina Higher Education Access and Success (HEAS) practitioners in April.

“I was really proud that we were still able to get a convening together this spring,” Sorrells said.

It was supposed to happen earlier in the school year, but Hurricane Helene put everything on pause as the Western part of the state struggled to dig out from the storm’s fallout. Ultimately, the convening had almost 70 attendees who Sorrells described as “folks who are committed to that same idea of helping and supporting students in our region to be successful in a way that’s defined by them and their communities.”

HEAS convening. Photo credit: Cesar Sanchez.

Using money from Dogwood, HEAS was also able to give out small grants of about $5,000 each to participating groups who applied for projects that would have them partner with others to see if there was a way to combine and magnify their work: for example, developing Spanish resources and materials for students and families in the region navigating the higher education process.

The group also worked on mapping out all the higher education access programs and professionals in the region to facilitate communication and partnership. Sorrells said the next step is to come back together and hear from all the groups that were awarded the mini grants, find out what they were able to achieve and share those resources and best practices.

“I think partnerships are going to be the key to effective change in our region and to being able to fully support our students and communities,” Sorrells said.

Devon McCarthy-James, College for North Carolina (CFNC)’s regional outreach director West, was involved with HEAS since the early days of its formation. She said a lot of great things came out of the convening, including the idea of mentoring programs that would send former high school students back into the classroom to connect with current students in a formal way.

Devon McCarthy-James speaking at HEAS convening. Photo credit: Cesar Sanchez.

“In a very cliché sense, it’s many hands make light work, because we are so spread thin,” she said. “We don’t have a lot of people doing this kind of work, so it’s very important to have a community of people collaborating.”

Klein said Western North Carolina has the services, the people, and the money in the districts to help students. For Klein, HEAS presents the opportunity to support both regional and school-level coordination of those existing resources.

“Unless you can get everybody working as a team in the same direction, frequently they are pulling in different enough directions to make it not as effective as it could be,” he said.

For Sorrells, the best part about the partnership is the organic nature of the collaboration. 

“We are structuring this group so that there is no directive from a power that is higher up,” she said. “It’s all people who are already invested in the work who want to do the very best that they can to make a positive impact.”

And by connecting and collaborating, HEAS will amplify outreach efforts, helping ensure all students have access to higher education. If people don’t pursue a higher education, HEAS is going to make sure it’s not because they think they can’t.

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If the HEAS story inspires you, start thinking about how you can partner with organizations in your area to increase the impact of your higher education outreach efforts.