The Woodward Hines Education Foundation (WHEF) is funding a five-year $1.5 million grant to First-Gen Forward, the leading organization for first-generation student success. This 2025-26 grant will support expanded access to First-Gen Forward’s extensive programming for Mississippi’s colleges, driving long-term systemic change at institutions across the state through a multi-layered approach.
Nationally, research indicates a significant gap in completion rates between first-generation and continuing-generation students, with completion rates at twenty-four percent vs. fifty-nine percent, respectively. In other words, first-generation students are less than half as likely as their continuing-generation peers to earn a college degree. In Mississippi, first-generation students account for more than fifty-six percent (roughly 92,000) of the 164,500+ students enrolled across the state’s thirty-two institutions. FirstGen Forward helps institutions support first-generation students and to close the gap.
“The Woodward Hines Education Foundation is committed to helping more Mississippians obtain postsecondary credentials, college certificates, and degrees that lead to meaningful employment,” says Jim McHale, President and CEO of Woodward Hines Education Foundation. “Our organization believes that supporting the success of first-generation students is a key way to improve the lives and futures of all Mississippians.”
WHEF funds will support institutional transformation through four components: Expert Guides providing coaching to institutional leadership teams; robust data systems that track key momentum metrics; regional learning communities that foster cross-collaboration; and advocacy efforts that elevate first-generation student needs in national and state-level policy discussions.