Paris Woods
Co-Founder and Executive Director, College Beyond
Just 11 percent of Louisiana Black undergraduates who enroll at four-year public universities will earn a degree on time, resulting in a very small percentage of Black youth from our community earning the degrees that are so important to economic mobility. Paris Woods knows first-hand that difficulties arise as early as the summer before freshman year. Due to a lack of guidance and support with myriad enrollment steps and confusing paperwork, many college-intending students fail to enroll in the fall, a phenomenon known as Summer Melt, whereby some 40 percent of low-income students melt from the college pipeline.
Additionally, among students who do matriculate, research shows that most students drop out of college within the first year. This is especially true for low-income and first-generation college students who lack the support their affluent peers possess, and often stumble at predictable moments in the college transition process: accessing student supports, securing and maintaining financial aid, mitigating small financial emergencies, and finding first year success. To combat the enormous challenges low-income students face in transitioning to college, College Beyond believes that investing its resources and efforts in a student’s first year of college will generate a long-term, transformative impact on a student’s life in college and beyond.