Travelers Edge: A Model on the Cutting Edge of Corporate College Access and Success Support

It is intuitive for businesses and corporations to be worried about the nation's economic competitiveness in the globalized marketplace. To help close this income-based degree attainment gap, models of college access and success programs continue to emerge among the corporate sector. For years, many corporations have established internship and/or scholarship programs to help students attend college by providing some financial support as well as practical work experience, so they can succeed in college then re-populate the workforce and stimulate the economy. However, little is still known about how American businesses are making the strategic connection between stimulating and maintaining the economy through programmatic efforts to support the nation's education reform movement. In order to ascertain the viability and scalability of corporate college access and success support initiatives, a close study is needed of their program mission and goals, the structuring of their practices, the implementation of their activities, the utilization of their resources (including their financial and human capital), and finally their process for measuring, evaluating and reporting the outcomes of their efforts to impact postsecondary education. The Pell Institute embarked upon this study of Travelers EDGE precisely to conduct a close assessment of their corporate college access and success program and to get some answers to these concerns. Ultimately, its goal is to contribute to a small yet growing and needed body of literature on effective practices that rely on private funding to increase low-income, first-generation student success. (Contains 6 figures and 3 footnotes.) [Contributors include Marlene Ibsen, Mike Newman, Joelle Hayes, Carlos Figueroa, Tara Spain, Ivelisse Maldonado, Cindy Garten, Tara Pollard, Nicole Hughey, Elyse Steiner, Deb Morris and Rose D'Onofrio. Funding for this paper was provided by the Travelers.]