Introducing the Student Advisory Group for Virginia Workforce Recovery: A Partnership to Strengthen G3
By Mycaeri Atkinson, Selena Cho, and Maria Cormier
This past year, CCRC began partnering with the Virginia Community College System (VCCS) and the University of Pennsylvania to study and improve VCCS’s pandemic workforce recovery initiative, Get A Skill, Get A Job, Get Ahead (G3). G3 helps low-income adult students earn credentials in five high-demand fields through scholarships and other supports.
To incorporate the perspectives and experiences of students into the research on G3, we assembled a Student Advisory Group to provide feedback on research design and initial findings and participate in disseminating the findings. This group, which convenes virtually three times a year, also functions as a check on biases and assumptions the team may bring to the research. Students’ circumstances, program, college, region, and other contextual factors affect how they experience G3 and what they get out of it. Though as researchers we strive to understand students’ perspectives, we are not Virginians experiencing G3. We recognize that, as outside researchers, sometimes our questions might be “off,” our sample might be missing a crucial perspective, or our interpretation of findings could be insensitive or less than useful. Here, the Student Advisory Group offers a valuable perspective that may help ensure that the research is relevant, inclusive, and useful to Virginia colleges and communities. This is the first time that CCRC is incorporating a formal student research advisory group in a project.
The advisory group comprises nine accomplished students from four institutions in four different regions of Virginia. In July 2023, the students participated in their first virtual meeting, telling their stories about why they decided to enroll in a G3 program. Many of the advisory group members, such as India Harris, who has completed multiple credentials in the healthcare field, chose to enroll in a G3 program to advance their careers. Similarly, Asiana Adams, the proud mother of a 3-year-old named Haven, sought stability and job security from her phlebotomy program at Patrick & Henry Community College. Adams said she feels that G3 “gives endless possibilities and opportunities to students.”
Also in healthcare, Caitlin Huynh chose to enroll in a Certified Clinical Medical Assistant program at Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA) because the position plays a “vital part in patients’ medical journeys.” Without G3 funding, she “would not be a medical assistant today,” she said. Tori Wire felt inspired to start in the physical therapist assistant program at NOVA because of her own experience in physical therapy after giving birth to her sons. “I feel like I can make a change in the profession and in people’s lives,” she said.
Willie Brown of NOVA and Mercy Kaburi of Tidewater Community College chose programs in IT. “The world is moving so fast with technology, and I don’t want to be left behind. Technology is everything today,” Kaburi said. Brown, who found out about G3 when struggling to find a path during the pandemic, said that his success in his program so far is due to “grit and perseverance.” In addition to sharing their stories, the Student Advisory Group members expressed gratitude for the resources that G3 has provided.
Other students come to G3 programs to upskill based on previous experience or entirely reskill to jumpstart a new career. Raeda Hamra, for example, is an award-winning political journalist who received her bachelor’s degree in Jordan. She is in the process of completing a Career Studies Certificate (CSC) at NOVA in national security, which may soon lead to an associate degree in administration of justice. Also at NOVA, Gegzi Hadera, a father of three from Ethiopia who has spent decades working on humanitarian causes and in communications and journalism, recently completed his degree in cybersecurity. Their stories display how G3 provides adults with opportunities to build on past experiences or to pursue a new path.
In recruiting students for the group, we aimed to assemble a panel that is diverse in terms of college, program, gender, and racial/ethnic identity. A research liaison for several institutions in the VCCS helped us to recruit students who were receiving G3 funding and identified as a student of color and/or low-income. We tried to cast a wide net by avoiding individual nominations by faculty and staff that might limit the panel membership to students who faculty members perceived to be “highly involved” or “academically exceptional.” Many G3 students juggle multiple responsibilities inside and outside of school and may not prioritize student involvement, so to seek only students who were nominated by college faculty and staff would leave out a large part of the G3 student population. Instead, the candidates were selected based on their ability and willingness to participate in the project and their enthusiasm to help future G3 students through the research.
Going forward, the research team looks forward to sharing more about the Student Advisory Board members and their contributions to the research as the study continues over the next two years.
