From Degree to Career

Across the country, colleges and universities are playing a critical role in preparing students for the jobs of tomorrow, a reality often overshadowed by the narrative that college no longer has value. Yet higher education's mission has always been broader than job preparation alone. Institutions cultivate critical thinking, civic engagement, creativity, and intellectual curiosity, the very capacities that enable students to thrive in a rapidly changing economy.

Heidi Tseu, Assistant Vice President for National Engagement at the American Council on Education (ACE), the nation's most prominent coordinating body for higher education, brings a national perspective that affirms both sides of this mission. ACE's National Engagement Office leads state‑focused initiatives that build networks, strengthen coalitions, and foster partnerships between higher education institutions and the communities that surround them. Through this work, ACE highlights how institutions advance student learning, support democratic and civic life, and drive workforce development and regional economic growth.

Ms. Tseu recently directed Higher Ed Builds America, a national campaign showcasing how colleges and universities partner with employers in every state to strengthen talent pipelines and prepare students for future‑ready careers. In this session, she will connect national policy trends, state‑level developments, and innovative institutional practices to the symposium's focus on college‑to‑career pathways. She will also offer insights on how college access practitioners can align their work with the strategies and expectations shaping higher education's future workforce partnerships, while honoring the full educational mission that makes those partnerships possible.

Dr. Kate Shaw, Executive Director of the Pennsylvania State Board of Higher Education, returns to the symposium to share the Commonwealth's newly adopted statewide strategic plan for higher education, the first in more than twenty years. She will outline what is now officially approved in Driving a Prosperous Pennsylvania, highlighting the plan's core priorities: expanding affordable and accessible pathways, increasing postsecondary attainment, improving coordination across institutions, strengthening fiscal stability, and aligning programs with regional workforce needs.

Dr. Shaw will also connect the plan to the policy issues shaping students' postsecondary journeys, including the FAFSA graduation requirement, Workforce Pell, evolving loan policies, and the growing emphasis on stackable credentials and short‑term programs.

In addition, she will introduce the Board's new statewide data dashboards, which provide transparent, easy‑to‑use insights on enrollment, affordability, credential attainment, funding, and workforce supply‑and‑demand trends. These tools offer practitioners, policymakers, and institutional leaders a clearer picture of regional needs and the pathways students navigate into and through postsecondary education.

Together, the newly adopted strategic plan and data dashboards present a coordinated, data‑informed vision for strengthening Pennsylvania's higher education ecosystem and supporting students across the Commonwealth.

Janai Raphael, Strategy Officer for Access at Lumina Foundation, brings a national perspective shaped by years of work in college access and success and by Lumina's investments in statewide pipeline initiatives. In this plenary, she will explore how students, families, and employers are experiencing higher education at a moment when the value of postsecondary learning remains high, yet confidence in affordability and access continues to erode.

Drawing on Lumina and Gallup's newly released State of Higher Education 2026 report, Janai will discuss the themes emerging from learners across the country, what they say they need to enroll, persist, and complete; what barriers continue to stand in their way; and how institutions and partners can respond with pathways that are more accessible, affordable, and aligned with students' goals.

Janai will also connect these national insights to Lumina's work funding statewide pipeline efforts, highlighting promising strategies that bridge higher education and workforce partners. Her session offers a clear, research‑grounded view of the realities today's learners face and the opportunities for systems and communities to build stronger, more equitable pathways into and through postsecondary education.