College Access & Success

Equalizing College Access: A Path to Prosperity For all

A group of graduates assembled in a stylized collage.
Student Leadership Network
November 29, 2021

Student Leadership Network continues to expand access to higher education for all students, particularly those from underserved communities. Our work centers around the notion that every young person regardless of economic status, race or community, should have the opportunity to gain a college education and reach their individual goals and dreams.

The challenges around college access disproportionately affect students in underfunded schools. Unfortunately, there continue to be political, economic, and social barriers to college access that directly impacts the representation of Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) in higher education.

In this post, we’ll dig into why college access and success matter and how SL Network has been leading the work of building equity in education for 25 years!  Jon Roure, our Executive Vice President & Chief Innovation Officer, helps us better understand the college access landscape, the challenges, and potential solutions. 

Jon Roure with CBI alumna, Priscilla

What Are the Barriers to College Access?

“I know first-hand the incredible power education has to transform whole families and lift their trajectories,” says Jon. “My family had humble beginnings; when my parents left Puerto Rico for the tri-state area, they struggled to make ends meet at times. They valued education but didn’t have the opportunity to go to college themselves.”   

This is a common challenge facing BIPOC families around the country. Although education is valued, it’s a struggle to realize the dream of higher education because of socioeconomic barriers. Jon explains how this continues to play out in the area where he grew up: “The two towns where we grew up in New Jersey still struggle with lead indicators for college access like Free Application for Student Aid (FAFSA) completion. They also lag in key outcomes like college enrollment for students of color with similar socioeconomic backgrounds.” 

Public schools like the one Jon and his siblings attended often don’t have the resources to give students the tools they need to succeed academically, leading to low test scores and low college enrollment numbers. Students need and deserve one-on-one attention, and counselors need to be able to dedicate time to the tasks that best support students through the college application process. Even today, as the ASCA recommends a 250-to-1 ratio of students to school counselors, the national average is actually 424-to-1 for the 2019–2020 school year.  At Student Leadership Network, our ratio is 83- to -1.

For some, the application process alone is intimidating, let alone the other equally important components on the path to college. Unfortunately, when it comes to completing the FAFSA, one of the most highly correlated indicators for college enrollment, millions of students across the country who are eligible for federal financial aid fail to receive it; leaving millions of dollars in financial aid on the table.

There are many barriers to FAFSA completion. These can include a student and their family’s lack of access to information, the stigma of taking on student loan debt, and the sheer complexity and abundance of paperwork required by the federal government, state, and institutions that require families to prove their need.

Without the proper resources and support to guide students – particularly those who are the first in their family to go to college – the road to college can be difficult to navigate. Until all students have access to the knowledge, support, and a sense of belonging at institutions of higher learning, we will continue to see a “degree divide” in this country.

Why Does College Access Matter to Our Society?

Expanding college access is integral to creating a more equitable society. Yet, in recent years there has been a shift in how higher education is perceived. For those with the privilege of choice, the decision to go to college has become less and less appealing. Skyrocketing tuition costs and the position of some political leaders that higher education may have a negative effect on society, factor into dwindling college applications.

However, we believe access to higher education could ease our nation’s social and economic divide. Though rising college costs and student debt are legitimate concerns, a college degree remains a good return on investment for those who earn them.   As recent data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows, the more you learn, the more you earn. For example, workers with a bachelor’s degree had median weekly earnings of $1,305 in 2020 compared with $781 for those with a high school diploma.

Undeniably, higher education plays a vital role in our society today. It teaches us more than just what we find in our books, often instilling in students a sense of connection and social responsibility. Moreover, people with a college degree not only tend to earn more but are also far less likely to be unemployed. While the COVID-19 pandemic broadly caused a higher unemployment rate, the unemployment rate for those with bachelor’s degrees was 5.5%, compared with 9% for those whose highest level of education was a high school diploma.

A college education is not just about economic advantages though. People with college degrees are shown to be more satisfied with their jobs and physically and mentally healthier than those without a college education. Because higher education is associated with a healthier lifestyle, it could, in turn, reduce health care costs. College graduates are also more likely to spend quality time with their children, teaching the next generation valuable lessons early.

Education remains one of the most powerful tools we have to create equity in a capitalist society. Education can, in simple terms, create cycles of prosperity for so many struggling Americans. 

At SL Network, we work with students from diverse underserved communities that wouldn’t typically have the opportunity to explore higher education options. Jon comes from such humble beginnings and is a shining example of how higher education can change lives.  “My two older sisters were my unofficial college advisors. I was fortunate that I had them to blaze a path and guide me every step of the way. Between the three of us, we now have 7 degrees – a Ph.D., a JD, two master’s, and three bachelor’s degrees. Yet, my parents taught me social responsibility –  that it’s not just about individual success. It’s just as important to give back to your community and help others succeed. Every day, at SL Network, we demonstrate what’s possible when students from marginalized communities gain access to quality education and seize opportunities.”

Our Approach to College Access and Success

It’s important to consider that there are real disparities in our educational system; not all students have access to the same information, opportunities, and other social capital. Part of SL Network’s mission is to make sure our students have the chance to reach their full potential by providing them with opportunities to explore higher education early on in their school journey. At the start of our time together, many of the students we work with can’t even imagine their future because they’ve never had access to the right resources. 

Our approach is layered and focused on expanding student access to higher education. Allocating people, expertise, and resources in the right places with the right process can have a significant impact on closing achievement gaps. We provide what students need by working with them every step of the way, starting in sixth grade, including experiential opportunities like college trips and fairs, and support in high school with filling out applications, finding scholarships, and applying for financial aid.

Programs like CollegeBound Initiative (CBI) are fully integrated within each school community we partner with. We work closely with school leadership, counselors, and teachers, to ensure that all students have the resources necessary to develop their post-secondary plans. CBI’s personalized approach directs students to well-matched postsecondary institutions with high degree attainment rates by underrepresented students, generous financial aid, and other supports that bolster college enrollment, college persistence, and college completion.

A group of alums from TYWLS East Harlem reunite for Alumni Days at their old high school. Once our students are accepted and enroll in college, we continue to support them to succeed there. Because they are often first-generation college students, they might be unfamiliar with many of the processes and protocols of higher education – from what a bursar does to optimizing the student-advisor relationship. Initiatives like our Bridge Through College program leverage near-peer leaders to successfully support students through key college persistence milestones. Additionally, our Alumni Engagement team offers diverse programs (in-person and/or virtual through varied channels) to further engage young alumni – and their families – and provide them with information and resources that address key barriers to college success. Ultimately, if you empower students to live to their fullest potential, provide role models, and create positive peer pressure – there’s no limit to what they can achieve.

Over the past 25 years, SL Network has supported over 46,000 students nationwide. Our students do not question if they will go to college, but where they will go to college. As we look forward to the next 25 years we hope to expand college access to hundreds of thousands more students so they too can claim their place, and succeed, at colleges and universities across the country. 

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Brad Ruskin

Board Chair

Brad Ruskin joined Student Leadership Network’s Board of Directors in 2014 and was elected Board Chair in 2023. He believes passionately in equity for all students.

Brad is a Partner at Proskauer Rose LLP, and has tried a significant number of high profile, headline-generating cases to verdict, each one with a complete victory for Proskauer’s clients on issues ranging from so-called “bet-the-company” antitrust challenges to questions of Russian constitutional and military law. He currently serves as a Director of the Legal Aid Society, the nation’s oldest and largest legal services provider to the indigent. He also serves on its Executive Committee. He is a frequently published author of articles, has taught a graduate school class at NYU’s Tisch School, and has testified before legislative and other bodies concerning the administration of justice and court operations in New York State.

Beth Cohen

Senior Managing Director, Growth Strategy and Development

Beth H. Cohen is passionate about connecting people, ideas, and resources to create a more equitable world. Throughout her career, she has successfully managed teams for various impactful organizations to generate over $150M.

For the past decade, Beth has worked to generate support for initiatives that allow young people across the U.S. to gain access to transformative educational opportunities. In September 2022, she joined Student Leadership Network as Senior Managing Director of Growth, Strategy, and Development. Previously, Beth served as Vice President of External Relations at New Classrooms. At New Classrooms, she led the fundraising team to raise over $80M to support the growth and expansion of innovative learning models. Before that, Beth served as Vice President of Leadership Gifts at Teach for America, where she cultivated the organization’s largest national supporters and champions.

Early in her career, Beth focused on international poverty issues. From 2001-2011, she was Director of the Synergos Institute’s Global Philanthropists Circle, a dynamic network of leading philanthropists addressing questions of strategy, meaning, and impact.  Previously, she worked with Catholic Relief Services as Senior Program Manager in Lima, Peru, and as an Internal Program Auditor. As an Internal Program Auditor, she assessed the effectiveness of diverse programs in Africa, Latin America, and the Balkans. Beth also worked as a Change Management Consultant for Andersen Consulting, where she designed and developed training programs for public sector clients in Texas and Puerto Rico.

Beth holds a BA from the University of Pennsylvania and a joint Master’s degree in Public Affairs and Latin American Studies from the University of Texas at Austin. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband, teenage daughters, and fluffy bernedoodle.

Sara Clarke

Chief Operating Officer

Sara C. Clarke is the Chief Operating Officer of Student Leadership Network. As a dedicated TYWLS volunteer and active contributor for 15 years, Sara is delighted to join the organization to apply her collaborative leadership and business acumen to help drive increased scale and impact. She brings over 20 years of experience at the confluence of strategic analysis, project management, and talent development. Sara has a proven commitment to equity and access to opportunity through decades of volunteer leadership focused on literacy, education, and career advancement.

Sara was most recently the Senior Vice President of Corporate Strategy, Analysis, and Collaboration at Showtime Networks Inc. She oversaw an adaptable, solution-oriented team, providing competitive analysis and strategic recommendations that helped Showtime exceed its performance targets. Earlier in her career, Sara was a consultant for Accenture in the Media and Entertainment practice. She serves as Co-President of the HBS African-American Alumni Association and has also served on the Board of Directors of the New York Chapter of Women in Cable Telecommunications, chairing the award-winning Prime Access Executive Mentoring program and community service committee.

Sara holds a master’s degree from Harvard Business School in Business Administration, and a bachelor’s degree with honors in Modern Culture and Media from Brown University.

Meg Kayman

Managing Director, Finance and Administration

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Meg is the Managing Director of Finance and Administration and has been with the organization since March 2009.  During that period, the organization has grown from a budget of $3.5 million to $11.0 million. She is part of the Administration Team which is responsible for building infrastructure to support the growing needs of the organization.

Prior to Student Leadership Network, Meg worked in the Financial Services Industry including positions as an equity research analyst at Goldman Sachs and a senior research analyst at General Electric’s Commercial Finance Division.  She also has been an active volunteer with numerous non-profit organizations and a board member of the HIV Law Project from 2005 to 2013.  She holds a B.A. in Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management from Michigan State University and an M.B.A. in Finance from New York University.

Rob Robinson

Senior Managing Director, CollegeBound Initiative

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Robert Robinson is the Senior Managing Director of CollegeBound Initiative (CBI). Prior to joining Student Leadership Network’s central office team in 2008, he served as director of college counseling for CBI at two Brooklyn high schools: Juan Morel Campos and Middle College High School at Medgar Evers College. As a college counselor, Robert worked primarily with first-generation students of color with the goal of preparing them academically and financially for college enrollment. Before joining CBI, Robert served as an Assistant Director of Undergraduate Admissions at his Alma Mater, New York University (NYU) for nearly four years where he worked specifically with the Higher Education Opportunity Program (HEOP) in an effort to increase minority and financially disadvantaged student enrollment.

Robert received both his Bachelor of Arts in Computer Science and his Master of Arts in Higher Education Administration from NYU.  He has also spent a summer in South Africa where he had the opportunity to study higher education and social reform. Robert prides himself on being an active member of his community.  He has volunteered with various non-profit organizations such as Grand Street Settlement and Publicolor. As a member of the New York State Association for College Admissions Counseling (NYSACAC), he has served as a Conference Presenter, Workshop Moderator and Planning Committee member. He has also served as a Summer Institute Mentor where his responsibilities included training new high school and college admissions counselors.

Laura Rebell Gross

Senior Managing Director, Girls’ Education National Team

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Laura Rebell Gross is the Senior Managing Director for the Girls’ Education National Team — comprising The Young Women’s Leadership Schools (TYWLS) and Young Women’s Leadership Network (YWLN) — which serves more than 10,000 students every year. A leader in the education field for decades, Laura implements a vision for developing innovative programs that enrich students’ lives, create experiential leadership opportunities, and build a path to college. Her expertise is widely recognized and she has been honored by Jewish Women International and The Center for the Women of New York. Laura is a national speaker and expert on girls’ public education.

To impact the lives of girls beyond New York City, Laura co-founded the Young Women’s Charter Prep School of Rochester, a YWLN affiliate, and takes the lead in identifying and establishing new school affiliates nationwide. Notably, Laura’s path to leadership started as a public school teacher, including serving as an English teacher at SL Network’s flagship school in East Harlem for six years.  She earned a BA from Tufts University, an MAT from Brown University, and has completed coursework toward an Ed. D. in Curriculum and Teaching at Teacher’s College, Columbia University and the Warner School, University of Rochester.

Jon Roure

Executive VP & Chief Innovation Officer

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Jon Roure is the Executive Vice President & Chief Innovation Officer (CIO) for the Student Leadership Network. As the organization’s first CIO, Jon oversees program planning and implementation across the network. He continues to provide overall leadership to CollegeBound Initiative (CBI) while developing the work streams that support the organization’s strategic planning efforts. This includes increased focus and programming around alumni engagement, research and evaluation, and national expansion via Young Women’s Leadership Network affiliate schools.

Prior to this year, Jon served as the Senior Managing Director of CBI for many years and totals decades of college counseling and management experience in both the higher education and nonprofit sectors. Jon began his career at Columbia University as an Early Intervention Initiative Coordinator for the Double Discovery Program and a College Advisor for Columbia’s Higher Education Opportunity Program (HEOP). In 2001, Jon was hired by SL Network (formerly Young Women’s Leadership Network) as one of four inaugural counselors to pilot CBI in some of New York City’s Title 1 public high schools.  He served as a CBI director of college counseling at Health Opportunities High School for almost five years where he worked to build a college-going culture with its families, faculty, and staff that helped guide nearly 400 students to college.

Jon holds a B.A. in Sociology (1998) with a minor in Professional Youth Work from Rutgers University and an M.A. in Student Personnel Administration (1999) from Teachers College, Columbia University.  He is a proud alumnus of the Educational Opportunity Fund Program (EOF) at Rutgers University and is an example of what opportunity and access to higher education can do for first generation students.

Lesley Guggenheim

Chief Operating Officer

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Prior to joining Student Leadership Network Lesley spent 15 years supporting school systems, schools, and educators across the country to ensure students in under-resourced schools have access to the excellent education they deserve. She began her career working at – and later leading – the NYC Teaching Fellows (NYCTF) program and later became a Partner and then a Vice President at TNTP (formerly The New Teaching Project). Lesley has a BA in political science from Union College and an MPA in non-profit management from New York University’s Wagner School.

Yolonda Marshall

Chief Executive Officer

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Yolonda Marshall has committed nearly two decades of her life working to ensure that children growing up in underserved communities across the country receive the education they deserve.  She is Student Leadership Network’s first-ever Chief Executive Officer charged with overseeing the management of the organization’s $11M budget, leading the implementation of the organization’s strategic direction, operations and ensuring that the organization is a great place to work and grow.

Prior to joining Student Leadership Network, Mrs. Marshall served as the Deputy Chief Officer, Regional Programs for New Leaders; an organization whose mission is to ensure high academic achievement for all children, especially students in poverty and students of color, by developing transformational school leaders and advancing the policies and practices that allow great leaders to succeed.  In this role, Mrs. Marshall was responsible for managing a team of Executive Directors who led all local program implementation, client engagement and management of 70+ staff across the country.

Mrs. Marshall began her education non-profit career with Teach For America where she held a number of leadership roles on their national development and human assets team, and also served as Interim Executive Director of the Greater Philadelphia region. Prior to joining Teach For America, Mrs. Marshall had a 14 year career with Showtime Networks Inc where she honed her sales and marketing skills, provided strategic direction to the nation’s top cable companies and managed a team of marketing specialists that created and executed comprehensive marketing plans to help launch critically acclaimed and Emmy award winning programming.

Mrs. Marshall received her BS degree in Marketing from Tuskegee University and her MBA with a concentration in Marketing and Media Management from Columbia Business School.

Ann Rubenstein Tisch

Founder and President

A native of Kansas City, Missouri, Ann began a 19-year career in broadcast journalism at WIBW-TV in Topeka, Kansas. She then moved to WCOO-TV in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and later joined NBC Network News as a national correspondent, where she developed a strong interest in educational issues.

After covering dozens of education stories for the network and reading and studying data on single-sex education, she was inspired to create an all-girls inner-city public school to serve disadvantaged families. In 1996, with the unanimous approval of the New York City Board of Education, Ann turned her idea into a reality and opened The Young Women’s Leadership School (TYWLS) of East Harlem – the first public all-girls school to open in the United States in 30 years. Her vision was to provide students growing up in underserved communities a high-quality college preparatory education modeled on the finest private schools.

Ann was educated at Washington University in St. Louis, where she graduated summa cum laude with degrees in psychology and sociology. She currently serves as a trustee on the Board of Washington University in St. Louis. She also serves on the Dean’s Council of The New York University Tisch School of the Arts and is a trustee of the Center for Educational Innovation. She consults with many school districts and parent groups across the country about creating schools similar to TYWLS.

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