Jackson College + Qualtrics

When Jackson College opened its Multicultural Center, a place for members of the college’s Men of Merit and Sisters of Strength mentorship programs to connect with fellow students and faculty, it was just one of the many steps the college had taken to provide a supportive environment for students of color.

But one of the college’s biggest obstacles in striving to improve the experience was a lack of actionable data about their incoming students. They knew their students’ financial backgrounds and test scores, but little about them as individuals—their life experiences,challenges, and goals. For example, they didn’t know which students would be working full-time while studying, or which students faced obstacles at home. Without these insights, it was difficult to develop proactive action plans for ensuring student success.

Jackson College needed an experience management platform that could automate traditionally manual parts of the research process and allow the school to understandand connect with students on a deeper level from day one.

Qualtrics Experience Management provided Jackson College with a sophisticated,time-saving solution. For example, when a student identifies himself as a male of color (the demographic group with the greatest risk of not completing college) during the college’s enrollment process, he receives an email containing a unique survey link. His responses are automatically captured in a “Student Story”, a summary that allows a dedicated mentor and advisor to understand that student’s background, challenges, and aspirations at a glance.

Having a more complete picture of the individual from the outset allows each mentor andadvisor to have more personalized conversations and deliver more tailored guidance. From day one, each student knows that their mentor and advisor has a deep understanding of them and a personalized plan for helping them succeed. And the college is now able to devote hundreds of hours that used to be lost in research and interviewing to additional initiatives that are increasing student engagement and retention.

Today, Jackson College is leading the way in improving educational outcomes for male students of color, combining their steadfast dedication to this moral imperative with the experience-data-collecting power of Qualtrics Experience Management.