PROJECT UPDATES
March 9, 2026
Researchers from the Pullias Center’s Promoting At-promise Student Success (PASS) team and University of Nebraska practitioners came together to present at the Annual Conference on the First-Year Experience (FYE) in Seattle. Each year, this conference brings together educators with a focus on supporting students through their transition into college and through their first year. The sessions were designed to share the research connected to direct practitioner work that our campus partners do, along with hands-on examples shared from the educators that stem from the research. Here are some highlights from our sessions.
February 25, 2026
Dr. Joseph (Joey) Kitchen, Associate Research Professor at the Pullias Center for Higher Education and the USC Rossier School of Education, has been selected as the editor for the Journal of the First-Year Experience & Students in Transition, a semi-annual journal published by the National Resource Center for the First-Year Experience and Students in Transition at the University of South Carolina’s flagship campus in Columbia, SC.
February 24, 2026
November's Complete College America conference brought together a dynamic group of educators, policymakers and educational advocates to strategize about higher education and workforce opportunities. With a focus on data-driven strategies, innovation and action, convening attendees engaged around what it takes to increase college completion rates across institutions, states and the country. PASS project Principal Investigator, Zoë Corwin, along with Amy Goodburn, Senior Associate Vice Chancellor and Dean of Undergraduate Education from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and Toni Hill, Professor from the University of Nebraska at Kearney had the opportunity to share research findings and practical implications from their work on Professional Learning Communities.
January 14, 2026
How can peer mentoring help 'at promise' students on your campus? Research Professor Zoë Corwin recently shared outcomes and research from our Promoting At-Promise Student Success (PASS) project on 'The Voice' podcast from Teachers College Record. Check it out below!
May 13, 2025
Join the Pullias Center's Promoting At-Promise Student Success (PASS) project research team as we share key findings from our three-year study involving postsecondsary professional learning communities (PLCs) designed to support at-promise students. This webinar will feature a conversation with members of three participating PLCs, who will discuss their experiences, key lessons learned and next steps. Additionally, we will introduce free, ready-to-use tools to help you successfully launch and facilitate your own PLC.
December 5, 2024
One question I continue to ask in our department and on our campus is: How are we changing our practices and policies to be student-ready, rather than expecting students to be college-ready? At-promise scholars entering college have many pressures and responsibilities that we need to acknowledge and adapt to for students to not only be successful academically, but for them to experience positive well-being as well.
February 15, 2024
Peer mentoring is a popular tool utilized by postsecondary institutions to support at-promise students as they navigate the transition to… Continue reading Promoting At-promise College Student Success through Peer Mentoring
November 17, 2022
Like so many in higher education, staff members in living-learning communities on the University of Nebraska’s campuses found themselves struggling… Continue reading How Job Crafting Can Help Employees ‘Stay Afloat:’ PASS Research Highlighted in The Chronicle’s ‘Staffing for Success’ Report
September 16, 2022
Student support practitioners (SSPs) are crucial in supporting (low-income, first-generation college, and/or racially minoritized) students pursuing higher education. However, when… Continue reading Understanding How Student Support Practitioners Navigated Ideal Worker Norms During COVID-19: The Role of Job-Crafting
September 13, 2022
Researchers on the Pullias Center’s PASS team have chapters included in two recently-published books centered around sense of belonging and… Continue reading The Impact of a Sense of Belonging in College and Delivering on the Promise of High-Impact Practices