Our North Star Moment:
The Promise and Challenge of FGLI Student Success in a Time of Uncertainty
Efforts to support access and success for first-generation and low-income students have always been layered with challenges. Indeed, the FGLI Consortium was established as an organization nearly ten years ago in recognition of that reality. In the current moment, however, these challenges seem to shake the very foundation of this endeavor. How can we prioritize the core tenets of our work when we must also respond to material instability? What can our role be as the promise and value of higher education is called into question? And, through it all, how can we re-commit to our values so we might push forward toward a brighter horizon?
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Our 2024 conference invited us to reflect on the past and progress of FGLI student support and to craft plans for the next chapter. Now, in 2025, our work calls us to chart a course through significant headwinds, leading many of us to pivot not only those future plans, but also to transform programs and practices that have long been established. This year’s conference aims to empower and equip us to champion our core values today and tomorrow – to keep sight of our North Star so we can move forward in alignment with our mission no matter the landscape.
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Please note: The FGLI Consortium Annual Conference 2025 is being hosted on the campus of Johns Hopkins University. All conference sessions have been organized by the FGLI Consortium. All content and statements during these sessions represent the views of the speakers and presenters themselves.
Conference Opening Panel
From Campus to Capitol:
The intersections of policy, politics, and our everyday practice
In this panel, experts in policy-making, government advocacy, and media will discuss the ways that all things “political” show up in our work to support students–and how we can ensure that our work, in turn, can inform the political.
Julie Groeninger
Assistant Vice President, Office of Government Affairs
Princeton University
Nina Vázquez
Community Organizer
Connecticut Center for Leadership & Justice
Former President
Connecticut Association of Educational Opportunity Programs
Conference Faculty Keynote
First-Gen Futures:
Toward Full Citizenship in a Changing Academy
Rashné Jehangir, PhD.
Professor of Higher Education and the Beck Chair of Ideas in the College of Education and Human Development
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Inaugural Dean of Education Opportunity Programs
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University of Minnesota​​
The Pivot Panel:
Navigating Institutional Change while Maintaining Core Values
In the past, universities and colleges have faced external and internal headwinds that have led to institutional practices and policies that deeply impact the ways we approach our work. The current environment has led to increased budget cuts, hiring freezes, reorganization, and other changes that have called us to pivot from planned paths and programs to alternative approaches. Our panelists hold leadership positions at their institutions, and will share how they have strategized, made challenging decisions, and crafted ways to maintain the mission of supporting FGLI student access and success while facing real barriers and boundaries.
Denise Beautreau
Director of the Center for Student Access and Success
Lehigh University
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Khristina Gonzalez
Senior Associate Dean of the College and the Bob Peck '88 Director of the Emma Bloomberg Center for Access and Opportunity
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Princeton University
April Ruiz
Associate Vice President and Dean for Equity & Inclusion
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Wesleyan University
Kourtney Cockrell
Moderator
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Co-Founder​​​
FGLI Consortium
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VP of Global Philanthropy JPMorganChase (The Fellowship Initiative)