News

$18.5 Million in Newly Approved Grants to Support Student Success, Workforce Mobility, Rural Guided Pathways

Ascendium’s Board of Directors recently approved 18 new grants totaling $18.5 million, including efforts with the Urban Institute, the Georgetown Center for Education and the Workforce and six other new grant partners. Among the new grants are initiatives that support campus finance leaders in advancing student success reforms, help postsecondary institutions identify successful workforce-relevant strategies for low-income learners and build the capacity of rural institutions to adopt guided pathways reforms.

Ascendium Looking to Hire Passionate People Wanting to Make Impactful Change, Q&A with Program Officers Shares Insight into Supporting Adult Learners

• Ascendium’s Grantmaking Team Strives for Impactful Change and Is Looking for Individuals Who Share this Passion
• Investing in Projects that Support Adult Learners
• Grant Explores Meaningful Workforce Partnerships

Ascendium’s Grantmaking Team Strives for Impactful Change and Is Looking for Individuals Who Share this Passion

Keith Witham, Ascendium’s new deputy director - education grantmaking, shares his thoughts about education philanthropy in a time of unprecedented challenge and his hopes for meeting those challenges by filling key positions on a growing team.

Community College Baccalaureate Research Roundup

Community College Baccalaureate (CCB) degree programs have the ability to change higher education. With grant funding from Ascendium and Joyce Foundation, New America continues to research the impact of CCBs on learners from low-income backgrounds and their communities.

New National Rural Postsecondary Research Agenda available, Washington Consortium One Year After Maintain Momentum Grant and More

• National Rural Postsecondary Research Agenda Now Available
• At One-Year Mark, Washington Consortium is Maintaining Momentum
• New Media Partnerships Spotlight Topics in Postsecondary Education

Rural community colleges respond to health crisis, a look at non-traditional models for students transitioning from training to the workforce and more

• Resources Help Rural Community Colleges in Aftermath of COVID-19 Health Crisis
• An Interest in Innovation: New Grants Explore Non-Traditional Models
• Keith Witham Named Ascendium’s New Deputy Director - Education Grantmaking

Keith Witham Named Ascendium’s New Deputy Director - Education Grantmaking

Ascendium welcomes Keith Witham as our new Deputy Director - Education Grantmaking. He will provide day-to-day supervision and support to program officers across Ascendium’s four focus areas to maximize the impact of investments that support learners from low-income backgrounds.

Ripon College And Marian University Win Grant To Explore A Partnership

Ripon College and Marian University have jointly received a grant from the Transformational Partnership Fund, funded in part by Ascendium. Their goal is to determine how their institutions might best work together to improve how they operate and serve students. The Transformational Partnership Fund assists postsecondary institutions in better serving students from low-income backgrounds through the exploration of partnerships and collaborations.

Professional Development in a Pandemic - Part 2

Ascendium supported the University of Wisconsin System with a grant to help students increase completion of math gateway courses. This article is the second in a two-part series focusing on the experiences of mathematics instructors participating in the University of Wisconsin System Math Initiative. They share their methods of removing remote learning barriers to student success in gateway mathematics courses.

Our Vision for Learning and Impact, Ascendium Education Philanthropy on Social Media, New Rural Matters Podcasts and More

• Learning and Impact at Ascendium
• Starting this Month, Find Ascendium's Education Philanthropy News and Info on Social @AscendiumEP
• New Podcasts Shine Light on Rural Voices, Partners