Opening doors

The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation helps young people of exceptional promise reach their full potential through education. Their Community College Transfer Initiative (CCTI) sought to extend educational opportunities for community college students by widening the transfer pipeline to selective colleges and universities. Currently less than one student out of 1,000 transfers from a community college to a selective institution, despite the fact that more than 40 percent of America’s undergraduates are in community college.

Pyramid worked in concert with foundation staff and their academic researcher team to understand the barriers and opportunities community college transfer students face. Our field research took us to community colleges and selective universities around the country, with findings used to develop a strategic communications plan for the CCTI. Additionally, we helped distill over 700 pages of academic research into the concise thought leader report, Threading the Needle of the American Dream.

This report, also funded by the Lumina and Nellie Mae Foundations, became the cornerstone of the CCTI national forum, where nearly 200 college presidents, administrators and education leaders gathered to discuss breakthrough opportunities for community college students. For the conference, we produced the opening video and coordinated earned media which resulted in placements in the Los Angeles Times, San Jose Mercury News, Chronicle of Higher Education, Philanthropy News Digest and Inside Higher Ed, among others.