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After months of pounding the pavement and getting the word out, leaders of the local education company Study.com says it has successfully put 300 people back on track for a college degree at little or no cost. And as interest in affordable higher education spreads, the company is poised to spread the program into other Bay Area cities.
Last year Study.com, based in downtown Mountain View, began a philanthropic effort called the Mountain View Working Scholars program, which aimed to help people who either live or work in the city earn a bachelor’s degree without having to deal with a rigid class schedule or high tuition costs.
Study.com is online education website with thousands of classes on a digital platform spanning from middle school to post-graduate courses, some of which can be taken for college credit. Enrollees in the Working Scholars program are able to take these classes for free, and can complete up to 90 units towards a bachelor’s degree in business administration.
In December, the company’s robust outreach campaign to get the word out — going door-to-door and asking individual employees if they’d be interested in trying it out — began to pay off, as roughly 250 applications rolled in and the inaugural class of about 30 people began actively working towards their degrees.
Since then, the company has received close to 1,000 applications and enrolled 300 people in the program, according to Krystal Alvarez, spokeswoman for Study.com. Many of the participants are familiar faces throughout Mountain View, including employees from Google, local bank branches, health care companies and downtown businesses. The Mountain View Whisman School District has 24 employees taking classes — most of whom are classified staff from several school campuses — making it the agency with the highest percentage of its workforce in the Working Scholars program, according to Superintendent Ayinde Rudolph.
Although Mountain View Working Scholars is open to pretty much anyone, the program is tailored for working residents and parents who don’t have the time or resources to take classes at a local college or university. Testimonials from participants detail how going back to school and finally getting a bachelor’s degree is nearly impossible with a full-time job, a requirement for getting by in an area with such a high cost of living.
Manny Velasco, the school linked services coordinator at Castro Elementary and Graham Middle School, is participating in the Working Scholars program, and said he’s been in constant contact with Study.com and has encouraged both school employees and families to sign up. He called it an “amazing” opportunity to give low-income immigrant families in the community a chance to finally get a college degree.
“I couldn’t be happier with the program,” Velasco said.
Using Mountain View Working Scholars as a tool to fight local inequality has been part of the mission of the company since it began the program last year. Adrian Ridner, the CEO and co-founder of Study.com, told the Voice in an email Monday that people living and working in Mountain View who don’t have degrees can’t tap into all the new, higher-paying tech jobs in the area, but are still stuck with the skyrocketing cost of living that comes with the booming jobs market. The result, he said, is an area rife with inequality and a loss of diversity.
Since launching the program, surrounding cities have taken notice and have approached Study.com about expanding beyond Mountain View’s borders. About six cities are now working on a similar program, and the Gilroy Working Scholars program is set to launch in June this year, said Bo Cheli, the company’s manager of community relations.
Cheli said the next big step is making sure Working Scholars participants network with one another and are well-positioned to advance their careers once they complete their degrees. The company hosted an event earlier this month and gave about 75 students in the program a chance to meet one another, network and feel like they aren’t doing it alone.
“We want them to feel like they are part of a cohort of students,” Cheli said. “You get to grow your network, you get to meet people in Mountain View. It’s not just a degree.”
