Iowa State is part of an alliance with ten other public research universities focusing on success for low-income and first-generation college students.

The University Innovation Alliance will focus on retention and graduation rates for students who are low-income, first-generation students. 

Each university in the alliance will have a team devoted to the alliance. At this point, the universities are devoted to sharing innovations and programs already implemented at the universities that help benefit these at-risk students, said Jonathan Wickert, Iowa State’s senior vice president and provost who traveled to Washington D.C. to present the alliance.  

One of the innovations that Iowa State may implement is using predictive analytics to see how students will perform in their classes and provide them with advising tools that will help them determine which majors in which they would be successful. This innovation is already in place in other universities. 

One of the innovations Wickert said Iowa State plans to share with the other schools is the university’s plan for learning communities, something Wickert said Iowa State does well. 

Alma Marquez, senior in chemical and biological engineering, is one of the students accompanying Wickert to the nation’s capitol. She will represent ISU students for the alliance. Marquez, a graduate of East High School in Des Moines and a first-generation college student, said the learning communities were an integral part to her success.

Marquez said the alliance is important for low-income and first-generation students’ success because they face problems others do not. 

“Even with students that already have that background — where their parents are educated or they’re familiar with higher education — even those students run into issues. Even more so for students who are underrepresented and disadvantaged because they don’t have that higher educational background,” Marquez said. “It’s an even higher risk for them to not only graduate high school and go to college but to actually stay in college and get through it.”