New Investment: Harrison Professional Pathways Program

A Better Chicago is excited to welcome National Louis University’s Harrison Professional Pathways Program (HP3) to our portfolio. Over the next two years, A Better Chicago will invest $200,000 and provide management support to help HP3 scale its promising model. HP3 is an innovative approach to higher education that addresses the most critical barriers to closing the bachelor’s degree attainment gap between students from low-income and high-income backgrounds. The program offers a highly supportive, student-centered model at an affordable cost, targeting students who are qualified to attend four-year universities but statistically are unlikely to achieve their bachelor’s degree.

We invested in HP3 after completing our rigorous due diligence process, which evaluates investment candidates in four key areas: program impact, leadership, operations and scale. HP3 is led by Aarti Dhupelia, who is a visionary leader with significant operating and management experience. While the program is only in its second year of operation, its early results indicate that HP3 students are significantly more likely to graduate from college than similar students. Looking ahead, HP3 aspires to grow from its initial cohort of 82 students in 2015 to over 1,600 students by the fall of 2019. We believe HP3 will reach this goal and flourish in a large state-wide student market.

A Better Chicago Portfolio Director, Kelly Jones, is optimistic about the program model, “HP3 is reimagining how higher education can more successfully and efficiently support low-income students on their journey to college graduation. We are thrilled to be partnering with HP3, and believe that when HP3 succeeds it will become a national model that will inspire other universities to do the same for students across the country.”

Learn more about Harrison Professional Pathways Program and our dynamic portfolio of grantees.