Return to Earn: Insights for Supporting Comebackers to Completion and Careers
Over six million Californians ages 25 to 64 have completed some college but not yet earned a credential. Shifting postsecondary structures to support this prospective student population is crucial for addressing the state’s workforce shortage. However, the needs of these individuals, often from underinvested populations, remain understudied—leaving institutions and policymakers with few evidence-based solutions to improve their educational outcomes. To bridge this gap, California Competes, in collaboration with CaliforniaAttain! partners, conducted [...]
The Power of Regional Collaboratives: Top Focus of Project Attain’s Summer Summit
Project Attain’s day-long Summer Summit held on August 9th at the Harris Center at Folsom Lake College is an annual event that brings education partners together to share, learn, and align on important systems change work that can lead to better education outcomes. This year, the event focused on adult learner success through the lens of regional collaboratives and the value that collaborative education partnerships can provide. Dakota Pawliki, director [...]
ProjectAttain! Hires Melanie Dixon, Former President of American River College, as Executive Director
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 14, 2023, Sacramento, CA – Project Attain has hired its first executive director, the organization announced last week at its annual Summer Summit held at Folsom Lake College. Melanie Dixon steps into the new position immediately. Dixon is Project Attain’s first full-time staff member, an important milestone that marks a major shift from being a regional education initiative to a fully operating, independent nonprofit organization. Dixon [...]
Gratitude Runs Deep
The ProjectAttain! team cannot say enough about the decade of work, time, leadership, and heart that Sacramento State President Robert Nelsen has lent to just about everything he touches. He is a man who believes deeply and genuinely in the power of education and all the benefits it offers students of any type at any age and from every background and circumstance. As he and Jody, his partner in life [...]
ProjectAttain! Celebrates Five Years!
Helping Adults to Prosper Through the Power of Education ProjectAttain! celebrates its five-year anniversary this month and as we look back on our journey so far, we can’t help but to be proud of all that’s been accomplished. ProjectAttain! is a Sacramento-based social impact organization helping adults who found it necessary to pause their education find their way back to attain their diploma, certificate, or degree. This work is so [...]
Improving Educational Outcomes for Adults Reaps Big Rewards
A Reflection from ProjectAttain! Founder Dr. Jenni Murphy It’s been five years since ProjectAttain! began. It was a big, bold idea born from a clear need: A need for an organization to help adults finish their education. There was no entity at the time focused solely on helping adults who found it necessary to pause their education navigate their way back, even while 675,714 adults in our region sat outside [...]
Sacramento K-16 Collaborative Seeks Research Consultant
Applications Accepted through May 23 @ 1 p.m. The Sacramento K-16 Collaborative is seeking a research consultant to act as the “research hub” responsible for managing the Collaborative’s research process. The scope of work includes institutional landscape analysis; K16 Collaborative educational ecosystem analysis and consulting; and conducting focus groups, interviews, listening circles, and survey research that captures individual experiences within the Collaborative’s focus areas. RFP documents will be available May [...]
K-16 Collaborative Transfer Equity Proposal Voted Among Top Four in CSU Student Success Analytics Course
Team Aims to Identify Barriers to Transfer for Non-Admitted Students In spring 2023, Nine workgroup members of the Sacramento K-16 Collaborative participated in the California State University Student Success Analytics program. The data-based and equity-focused Student Success Analytics curriculum gives higher education faculty, staff, and administrators from across the country the knowledge and opportunity to turn institutional data into action that closes equity gaps for historically underserved students. For its [...]
Understanding Challenges and Supports for Community College Students
Insights from the Statewide College Attendance Survey (Sacramento State/Melissa Uroff) The California Community Colleges (CCC) system is one of the largest and most diverse higher education systems in the world, serving more than 2.1 million students every year. However, completing a degree or certificate program at a community college can be challenging, and many students drop out before finishing. To better understand the reasons why students leave, the [...]
Sacramento State Plans to Launch Adult Learner Success Center
Center to Provide Adults with Resources, Belonging, and Support to Complete their Education Sacramento State is taking steps to better serve adult students with plans to launch an Adult Learner Success Center. Grounded in an idea that grew out of Dr. Anna Keck’s doctoral research, the Center will provide returning students with the necessary resources and support they need to return to school to complete their degree. Like specialized [...]
2023 is Here and ProjectAttain! is Ready
ProjectAttain! is excited to kick of a new year with some very ambitious goals all aligned with our mission of addressing equity and talent gaps by increasing the region's educational attainment for working age adults to 60% by 2030. Photo by boliviainteigente on Unsplash It’s important work. In fact, the 2021 Community Survey data shows that almost half a million (498,424) adults in our region started high [...]
One-on-One with Los Rios Chancellor Brian King
King shares what the Sacramento K-16 Collaborative means for adult learners and ProjectAttain!’s role as the collaborative’s backbone organization In May 2022, the Office of the Governor announced that the Capital Region would receive 18.1 million as part of the K-16 Education Collaboratives Grant Program, a ground-breaking program that will provide new pathways to career opportunities for students in their local communities, addressing long-standing equity challenges in higher education, [...]
A Grateful Farewell to ProjectAttain! Board Member Dave Roughton
Dave Roughton is a well-known Sacramento businessman regarded for his industry and community leadership and probably most known as the President/CEO for SAFE Credit Union. Afterall, he has been in a leadership position with the credit union for over two decades, serving as President & CEO since 2016. Beyond this responsibility, Dave is also a ProjectAttain! board member who has helped steer our organization through formation to launch. SAFE [...]
Sacramento K-16 Collaborative Wins $18.1 Million to Create Regional Education-to-Career Pipelines
ProjectAttain! Set to to Guide Regional Collaborative Photo Credit: Andrea Price, Sacramento State ProjectAttain! will play a key role in guiding the Sacramento K-16 Collaborative that brings together the Los Rios Community College District, Sacramento State, UC Davis, the Sacramento County Office of Education, and others to develop new education-to-career pathways in healthcare and engineering, especially for students from traditionally underrepresented communities. The Collaborative is one of [...]
ProjectAttain! Board Members Among “Most Admired” CEOs
The Sacramento Business Journal Honors Duncan and Roughton Honorees for this award program are nominated by Business Journal readers and staff and chosen through a vote of their peers. This year sees honors awarded for ProjectAttain! board treasurer Dave Roughton, a Distinguished Career honoree, and board member Willy Duncan, nominated in the education category. "ProjectAttain! is so fortunate to have leaders like Willy and Dave invested in closing the [...]
Most Admired CEO Honoree: Willy Duncan, Sierra Joint Community College District
Sierra College President Willy Duncan has used a combination of ambitiousness and pragmatism to help keep his school's 18,000 students on track with their studies amid a pandemic that upended teaching protocol everywhere. “We were one of the first colleges in the country to move to a remote environment. That allowed us to get ahead of the curve,” said Duncan. “But we never quite hit all of the classes. [...]
Completing Her Education Transformed Crystal Sims’ Life
"I didn't grow up believing in myself and I do believe in myself now." Every comebacker has a reason to recommit to their education. For Crystal, completing her education was proof positive that she could do it and she was worth it. Subscribe to ProjectAttain!'s YouTube channel to hear more comebacker stories. https://youtu.be/R7gYBSe9BT0
ProjectAttain! Wins National Grant to Build Rural Community Learning Systems
CivicLab selects ProjectAttain! as one of five rural partnerships across the U.S. to participate in a two-year initiative to improve higher education and workforce systems. Supported by Ascendium Education Group, ProjectAttain! will receive training, technical assistance, and direct financial support valued at $150,000 to develop and implement system-level strategies that create pathways to prosperity for rural, low-income learners. Sacramento-based ProjectAttain! joins a cohort of four other partnerships from Florida, [...]
Sacramento State to Pay University Debt for Returning Students
A new Sacramento State program that will forgive outstanding fee debt for returning students is part of a series of initiatives aimed at getting learners back into the classroom and on the path to a degree. The need to make good on unpaid fees – sometime in the hundreds or thousands of dollars – presents a significant barrier for many students hoping to return to college after having left [...]
Jose De Jesus Gallegos Reimagined His Education to Honor His Parents
Jose Returned to Complete his Degree to Honor his Immigrant Parents Every comebacker has a reason to recommit to their education. For Jose, completing his degree was a tribute to his parents who left school without a high school education. Subscribe to ProjectAttain!'s YouTube channel to hear more comebacker stories. https://youtu.be/d2r_rGtaMHU
ProjectAttain! Founder Joins UPCEA Council on Credential Innovation
Dr. Jenni Murphy envisions a California where every credential counts and she's working with UPCEA to make it happen. Dr. Murphy, Dean of Sacramento State’s College of Continuing Education and Founder of ProjectAttain!, joins 15 other senior campus leaders charged with driving non-degree credential strategy and key thought leaders from nonprofit organizations actively contributing to the development of an alternative credential space. Through its Council on Credential Innovation (CCI), [...]
Most and Least Educated Cities in America
Capital Region Ranks 49th out of 150 To determine where the most educated Americans are putting their degrees to work, WalletHub compared the 150 largest metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) across 11 key metrics. Their data set ranges from the share of adults aged 25 and older with a bachelor’s degree or higher to the quality of the public-school system to the gender education gap. Of 150 MSAs, Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom, CA, [...]
Most Admired CEO Honoree: Dave Roughton, SAFE Credit Union
Dave Roughton may be retiring from his role as CEO and president of SAFE Credit Union, but his investment in the organization — and its impact on Sacramento — hasn’t wavered. Through leadership positions on the Greater Sacramento Economic Council, the California Credit Union League, and the Sacramento Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, Roughton has been an influential voice in the region's economic vitality, helping businesses navigate through pandemic-related struggles. [...]
IHEP’s Degree Reclamation Playbook now Available
The Degree Reclamation Playbook supports practitioners seeking to re-engage adult learners, capture the momentum of existing credits, and bring students across the degree finish line ProjectAttain!’s work attracted IHEP's Degrees When Due (DWD) opportunity to the region and to California's broader network of public higher education institutions. This equity initiative helps statewide systems and colleges identify students that earned credit thresholds but left without a degree or credential. The [...]
Completing a Bachelor’s Degree has Positive Effect on Income
New KSU Study Highlights Benefits to Graduates and Institutions when Comebackers Complete their Education Returning to college to earn a bachelor's degree leads to both an immediate increase in annual income after graduation and an increase in annual income growth each year after graduation, according to a Kansas State University economics researcher. Amanda Gaulke, assistant professor of economics in the College of Arts and Sciences, found that students who [...]
Robynne Rose-Haymer Reclaimed Her Value by Completing Her Degree
Robynne's Children Motivated Her to Complete Her Degree Every comebacker has a reason to recommit to their education. For Robynne Rose-Haymer, completing her degree boosted her self worth and set an example for her children. Subscribe to ProjectAttain!'s YouTube channel to hear more comebacker stories. https://youtu.be/zhcNnVqZ_Fc
American Leadership Forum Honors ProjectAttain! Leaders
Jennings and Orchard Receive ALF Exemplary Leader Award Each year the American Leadership Forum - Mountain Valley Chapter honors a Sacramento-region leader who represents the cornerstone of ALF. The award recipient thinks and works regionally, values diversity, and is a successful collaborative leader. ALF bestowed this honor on two ProjectAttain! board members, Cassandra H.B. Jennings, CEO of St. Hope, and Arlen Orchard, chair of the the board of directors [...]
Joel Maier Returned for His Sons
Joel Maier's Sons Inspired His Return to School Every comebacker has a reason to recommit to their education. For Joel, military man and father of two, that reason was his sons. Subscribe to ProjectAttain!'s YouTube channel to hear more comebacker stories. https://youtu.be/DHauoGmOA6w
Dr. Su Jin Jez of California Competes Appears on “Moved by Degrees”
The Graduate! Network's New Podcast Launches with a Familiar Face ProjectAttain! champion Dr. Su Jin Jez, executive director of California Competes, is a contributor to The Graduate! Network's new podcast, "Moved by Degrees." The series launched on Friday, November 5, 2021, and is available here. Episode One, "The Banner Lady," features comebacker Kimberly Lowe Sawyer and focuses on how supporting completion for vulnerable adults can transform families and communities. [...]
One-on-One with Treasurer Dave Roughton
"ProjectAttain! is critical for building our regional workforce and strengthening our ability to compete for new businesses that bring good jobs with great benefits to Sacramento." Dave Roughton, president and CEO of SAFE Credit Union, sits on ProjectAttain!'s executive committee and serves as its treasurer. After 29 years with SAFE, where he started as a minimum wage, entry level cash vault teller, Roughton is energized to envision how ProjectAttain! [...]
IHEP Recognizes Degrees When Due Success @ Shasta College
Shasta College Graduates 600+ Comebackers through DWD Initiative More than 36 million adults across the country have earned some college credits but stopped out before earning a degree. To promote completion, the Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP) launched an innovative, nationwide completion initiative: Degrees When Due (DWD). ProjectAttain! plays a key role in coordinating the DWD California Cohort, communicating information between the IHEP research team and California institutions, sharing DWD research, [...]
Manuel Morfin Shares
His Reason to Return
Manuel Morfin's Father Inspires His Return to School Every comebacker has a reason to recommit to their education. For Manuel, that “Why” is deeply personal. Subscribe to ProjectAttain!'s YouTube channel to hear more comebacker stories. https://youtu.be/_w2oQ612Qk8
Who Are Returning Adult Learners?
Higher Learning Advocates Breaks Down Adult Learners in New Factsheet Adult learners face different challenges on their path to completing their credential or degree. Want to learn more about the population at the heart of ProjectAttain!'s work? Higher Learning Advocates has a great resource to better understand these learners. Click here to view the full fact sheet.
HornetAttain! Navigator Wins Sac State STAR Award
Noelle McCurley is a Navigation Rock STAR and Sac State Knows It In July, the university honored McCurley with a Staff Talent Appreciation & Retention (STAR) Award for her hard work, drive, and unshakeable commitment to learners. Although she has worked with tens of thousands of students in her 25-plus years of service at Sacramento State, McCurley ensures that every student feels important, valued, and heard. "No one wants [...]
Making Your Plan To Return
Explore If you’re ready to get started, here are some steps you can take to get ready to go back to school: Think about your career and education goals. Where do you see yourself a few years down the road? Think about your daily routines. What will you need to balance college, work, family and life? Think about your past experience. What credits, certificates, and courses have you already [...]
ProjectAttain! founder earns 2020 Distinguished Alumni Award
DAA 2020: Murphy found home, career path at Sac State By Cynthia Hubert Jenni Murphy, Dean of College of Continuing Education at Sacramento State received Distinguished Service Award As a Gold Award Girl Scout and the product of a tightly knit farm community in Ohio, Jenni Murphy learned at an early age the importance of teamwork and leadership. Those skills came in handy when she landed [...]
How Sac State is supporting degree-completion
Sac State to lead statewide degree-completion effort By Jonathan Morales By 2025, projections show that 65 percent of jobs will require that employees have some type of post-secondary education. (Sacramento State file) You’ve put in the hard work. Finished all of your classes. But you never formally applied for graduation. Or maybe you have an outstanding parking ticket or overdue library book. [...]
Mayors of Sacramento discuss Education Attainment
Summit on Education Attainment for Working Age Adults Sacramento, CA – On Wednesday, May 23,2018 Mayor Steinberg joined fellow mayors Christopher Cabaldon of West Sacramento and Preet Didbal of Yuba City to discuss the educational attainment of adults in the Sacramento region. The mayors' panel was organized by Align Capital Region and California State University, Sacramento. It's part of an initiative to get the estimated 62,000 people in [...]
Publications
Summer Summit On Adult Learner Success
ProjectAttain! Board Members Among “Most Admired” CEOs - ProjectAttain! says: