Lehigh announces commitment to expand college access at White House event

Henry Odi, Lehigh’s vice provost for academic diversity, will join President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, and Vice President Joe Biden along with hundreds of college officials and other higher education leaders to announce new actions to help more students prepare for and graduate from college.

The White House College Opportunity Day of Action helps to support the President’s commitment to partner with colleges and universities, business leaders, and nonprofits to support students across the country to help our nation reach its goal of leading the world in college attainment. 

Lehigh’s specific commitment to this goal is to significantly improve STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) retention and success among at-risk, underrepresented students. With funding from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and future sustainability through Lehigh commitments, Lehigh will implement two major initiatives: BioConnect, a partnership with local community colleges to help talented students from diverse backgrounds obtain STEM degrees through successful transfer into a university environment and RARE, the Rapidly Accelerated Research Experiences Program, a focused pre-admission-to-graduation science immersion program that will target at-risk and underrepresented students, providing scientific skills and emphasizing preparation for leadership

“While Lehigh’s STEM retention rates exceed the national average, underrepresented students here and across the nation graduate at lower rates,” said Odi. “Today we join many fine institutions addressing STEM persistence to better serve these talented students and meet the nation’s demand for a technologically advanced workforce.”

Today’s participants were asked to commit to new action in one of four areas: building networks of colleges around promoting completion, creating K-16 partnerships around college readiness, investing in high school counselors as part of the First Lady’s Reach Higher initiative, and increasing the number of college graduates in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

The President will announce new steps to support these actions, including announcing $10 million to help promote college completion and a $30 million AmeriCorps program that will improve low-income students’ access to college.  Today’s event is the second College Opportunity Day of Action, and will include a progress report on the commitments made at the first day of action on January 14, 2014.

Expanding opportunity for more students to enroll and succeed in college, especially low-income and underrepresented students, is vital to building a strong economy and a strong middle class.  Today, only 9 percent of those born in the lowest family income quartile attain a bachelor’s degree by age 25, compared to 54 percent in the top quartile.