10 FRONTDOORS MEDIA | JULY 2018 COVER STORY {by karen werner}

JULY 2018 | FRONTDOORS MEDIA 11 Arizona’s economic growth faces a challenge. Only 44 percent of Arizona’s working adults have an associate degree or higher, but by 2020, 70 percent of jobs in the state will require some form of higher education. But simply attending college isn’t enough. To enjoy the full benefit and participate in the state’s present and future economy, students need to graduate. Still, just over half of the full-time students working toward bachelor’s degrees at Arizona universities will graduate within six years. And if a student is from a low-income background, or is a minority, or is a first-generation college student, or attends college part-time, the chances of success are even lower. College Success Arizona is working to remedy this by supporting college students from disadvantaged and underrepresented backgrounds. A A 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, it does this by providing a combination of scholarships, mentoring and emotional support to help students stay on track and graduate. “This is our 13th year of awarding scholarships and mentees,” said Rich Nickel, president and CEO of College Success Arizona. “With this year’s group of scholars, we’ll have been able to help over 1,400 high- potential, low-income Arizona students with mentoring and scholarship awards to attend Arizona’s colleges and universities.” College Success Arizona’s roots stretch back to a trip former Governor Janet Napolitano made to Washington state, where she saw Bob Craves, a founder of Costco, discuss a program he had created to make higher education accessible to low-income students. Before that time, Arizona had not made much investment in incentivizing low-income students to attend colleges and universities. So Napolitano; Craves; Don Budinger, the founder of the Rodel INNOVATI N EDUCATI N College Success Arizona is helping students – and the state – get more out of higher education