SUNY Receives National Support from Lumina Foundation to Help Adult Students Earn College Degrees and Prepare for 21st Century Careers

Albany – The State University of New York has been awarded by Lumina Foundation for Education an $800,000 grant and the opportunity to participate in a nationwide Adult Degree Completion network dedicated to helping adult students with some college credits earn their degrees. 

With support from Lumina Foundation, SUNY will partner with business and industry leaders and economic development organizations to launch SUNY WORKS - a unique new cooperative education initiative featured in SUNY’s new strategic plan, The Power of SUNY. Students participating in SUNY WORKS will engage in salaried, credit-worthy 21^st century career experiences while they complete their degrees, expanding job opportunities upon graduation. 

Through SUNY WORKS, SUNY and Lumina expect an additional 2,000 adult students to complete degrees by 2014 and will ultimately produce more than 5,000 work-savvy graduates upon full scale-up across SUNY’s 64 campus system.

“SUNY has unmatched capacity to significantly increase the proportion of working age adults across New York State who earn college degrees and are prepared for 21^st century job opportunities,” said SUNY Chancellor Nancy L. Zimpher. “The generous support of Lumina Foundation will help to position SUNY as an engine for New York’s economic revitalization.”

“We are so pleased that SUNY has been selected by Lumina to be a part of this exclusive national network of organizations dedicated to creating an educated and highly skilled workforce for the future,” said Chancellor’s Deputy for the Education Pipeline and Vice Chancellor for Community Colleges Johanna Duncan-Poitier. “We look forward to working with New York’s business and industry leaders to launch SUNY WORKS and create a sustainable model for increasing degree attainment and workforce readiness among adult students.”

With 37 million adults in America today, ages 25-64, who have attended college but never earned a degree or credential, Lumina Foundation has made a renewed commitment to helping adult learners to succeed and graduate.  Lumina’s commitment includes support for 19 large scale projects from across the nation, including SUNY WORKS, which will provide leverage to efforts that educate and retrain workers who need up-skilling to be competitive in the job market. 

“There is growing evidence that adults who have gone to college but not received a degree are looking for a second chance but need the right kind of information and motivation to help them succeed,” said Lumina President/CEO Jamie Merisotis. “This vital work aligns directly with our goal to increase the proportion of Americans with high-quality degrees or credentials to 60 percent by 2025. Given demographic trends and attainment rates among young adults, it is highly unlikely that the nation can meet its growing need for college-educated workers only by focusing on recent high school graduates.”

Additionally, New York State was selected to participate in two of the other 19 projects being supported by Lumina Foundation. SUNY students will benefit from the Win-Win project, led by the Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP), which will help identify students who are close to degree completion and work to remove the barriers that hindered their ability to earn degrees. Furthermore, the Manufacturing Institute is leading a project to increase the number of adult students in select states, including New York, who earn industry-recognized Advanced Manufacturing certifications.  Together, all 19 projects will be part of Lumina Foundation’s Adult Learners Strategy, allowing college organizations across the nation to work together and share practices focused on college completion.

About the State University of New York

The State University of New York is the largest comprehensive university system in the United States, educating nearly 465,000 students in more than 7,500 degree and certificate programs on 64 campuses. To learn more about how SUNY creates opportunity, visit www.suny.edu 

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