Utah Valley University’s high return on investment for students of all backgrounds earning national salutes

Michelle Jackson already possessed several of the qualities needed for college success: Ambition. Strong work ethic. Tenacity. And, finally, a vision for her personal and professional future.

But what Jackson needed were those educational opportunities that can be challenging to find for so-called “First Gens.”

Jackson is a first generation immigrant and a first generation college student. She’s also a young mother and a new homeowner — busy tackling the day-to-day tasks of caring for a couple of small children and helping to support a household.

Utah Valley University, said Jackson, is her ongoing source for those essential educational and mentoring opportunities.

“Anyone who wants to go to UVU has the same opportunities available to them. They make it really accessible for everyone,” she told the Deseret News.

The institutional opportunities being offered to Jackson and many of her classmates have earned UVU — the state’s largest university by enrollment — an “Opportunity College and University” designation by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education.

The designation highlights UVU as “a model for studying how campuses can create and support student success by providing more access to more people in their communities and fostering high earnings post-graduation,” according to a university release.

The UVU designation is part of a newly introduced Student Access and Earnings Classification, published this month by the Carnegie Foundation and the American Council on Education.

The new classification assesses how well institutions create opportunities for student success by measuring whether they enroll students who reflect the communities they serve and by comparing the graduates’ earnings to their peers in the same areas.

Only 16% of the nation’s colleges and universities received a similar “Opportunity College and University” designation.

“As an open-access institution, UVU encourages students to ‘Come as you are’ and provides a high-quality education with seamless pathways to a degree, whether through vocational/community college offerings or four-year and master’s programs,” said UVU Acting President Jim Mortensen in the release.

“This innovative model has resulted in strong job placement and competitive wages for our graduates, who consistently earn above the national median.”

“This Carnegie Classification affirms that our student programs truly make a difference in fostering career success.”

UVU reports almost 75% of its graduates securing “high-wage, high-demand” jobs with 4- or 5-star ratings by the Utah Department of Workforce Services in a variety of fields — including nursing, elementary education, engineering, computer science, finance and marriage and family therapy.

Feeling seen on a sprawling campus

UVU leaders also point to the school’s comprehensive approach to student support services as key to fostering an opportunity-rich campus.

The school’s Student Success Center, for example, offers students of all backgrounds academic advising, tutoring, mentorship and wellness programs.

Meanwhile, the First-Generation Student Success Center and UVU’s GEAR UP resource assistance program offer admissions-to-graduation guidance for students such as Jackson.

A Mexico City native, Jackson and her family moved to Provo when she was a little girl.

After graduating from Provo High School, she discovered a path to higher education via UVU’s GEAR UP program. She began attending school, married and expected to follow a linear student path to Graduation Day.

But life intervened.

Family challenges and pregnancy prompted Jackson to step away from school.

But when she and her husband later found out they were expecting their second child, “I decided I needed to be a good influence for my children and teach them the importance of education — so I re-enrolled at UVU.”

Excited to be back in class and pursuing educational goals, Jackson said she’s been “all in” during her second stint at the Orem school. She participated in the school’s “Presidential 100” program — enjoying the mentorship of UVU President Astrid Tuminez and others on campus.

Jackson remembers Tuminez encouraging her to chase and capture dreams.

“President Tuminez said, ‘Go write down your dreams and start working on them. You really can accomplish these things.’”

That sort of campus leadership and support has proven pivotal for Jackson and her family in purchasing their first home — and she’s a year away from graduating with an accounting degree. She has her post-graduation eye on entrepreneurship.

Jackson added she has never felt unseen at UVU, despite the school’s massive student body of almost 50,000.

“They do a wonderful job of connecting with everyone, individually,” she said.

Affordable paths to higher education

Inside Higher Ed recently highlighted UVU’s classification as an “Opportunity University,” noting the school’s commitment to first generation students and non-traditional students.

Kyle Reyes, vice president for institutional advancement at Utah Valley, said he attributes the university’s high “Return on Investment” for students to the institution’s long-term investment in student success initiatives — and an unwillingness to deviate from its original mission as a broad-access institution.

Some of those efforts, Inside Higher Ed noted, have included partnerships with K-12 schools; helping students fill out federal financial aid applications; offering scholarships; academic advising; a food pantry; low-cost, on-campus childcare; student research opportunities; paid internships; and completion grants for returning students.

Recognition as an affordable pathway to economic stability through the new classification system is both “validating” for Utah Valley and a “game-changer” for all of higher education, Reyes told Inside Higher Ed.

“For so long, the incentives were for exclusion, prestige, lower admission rates and higher test scores — even though on the ground we knew the masses weren’t being served by that model,” he said.