Good afternoon, everyone. I am honored to welcome you to SUNY Oswego’s Syracuse campus as we celebrate the success of our Advancing Completion through Engagement — or ACE — program.
Before I begin, I want to thank our elected officials and special guests who are here with us today. Senator Chris Ryan is here, along with his deputy chief of staff Brooke Schneider. Senator Rachel May, thank you for your support. We are also pleased that Tina Zagyva (Zag-yi-vah) is here, representing Assemblymember Pamela Hunter. Your presence shows your dedication to higher education and our students. We appreciate your partnership and support.
ACE holds deep personal significance for me. I had the privilege of helping implement ACE at Lehman College in the City University of New York system, where, as Provost, I saw firsthand how its holistic approach transformed lives.
What started in New York City in 2015 has grown into a nationally recognized model for improving student success and increasing completion rates. Thanks to the leadership of SUNY Chancellor John B. King Jr. and the commitment of Senior Vice Chancellor for Student Success Donna Linderman, SUNY has become the largest higher education system outside of CUNY to implement ACE on a broad scale.
At SUNY Oswego, we wholeheartedly embraced the program. Today, I am proud to share that we now serve 409 students through ACE — the largest program in the SUNY system for two years running.
The strength of ACE lies in its holistic approach. It provides students with the financial support they need to cover essentials such as textbooks, groceries, and transportation — the everyday costs that often become barriers to staying in school.
It also offers comprehensive academic support, from tutoring and personalized advising to career counseling, ensuring that students have the guidance and resources to succeed in the classroom and beyond.
And perhaps just as important, ACE fosters a true sense of community by surrounding students with mentors, peers, and a support network that helps them stay on track and move confidently toward graduation.
Our university’s new strategic plan, unveiled earlier this year, is built on three pillars: Grow, Connect, and Thrive. ACE embodies all three. It helps students grow by removing barriers to access, connect through mentoring and advising, and thrive by completing their education and moving into meaningful careers.
The early results of ACE at SUNY Oswego are encouraging, especially for the students we most want to reach. Nearly all of our ACE participants are first-generation, Pell-eligible, or from underrepresented backgrounds — students who often face the steepest barriers to success.
Among this group, ACE students are not only earning more credits and achieving higher GPAs than their peers, but they are also being retained at significantly higher rates. While the overall retention rate for the program is 76.6 percent, it is even more striking when compared to non-ACE students from similar backgrounds.
In fact, 84 percent of our ACE students from these high-risk populations returned for their second year, compared to just 69 percent of similar students not enrolled in ACE. That gap demonstrates the power of ACE to change trajectories and open doors that might otherwise remain closed.
I’d like to acknowledge the foundations and organizations whose generous support has helped bring ACE to our campus — the Robin Hood Foundation and the Jewish Foundation for Education of Women — as well as our state leaders through the SUNY Transformation Fund.
Their investment ensures that our students have the resources and support they need to succeed, and we are deeply grateful for their partnership.
Today, we are joined by several of our ACE students, who will share their personal experiences with the program. Their stories are the true measure of ACE’s success, and I know you will find them inspiring.
This program wouldn’t exist without Donna Linderman, who developed ACE during her time at CUNY. She understood that higher education needed an innovative model — one that supports the whole student.
Now, as she leads student success initiatives at SUNY, she continues to direct transformative efforts that broaden opportunities across our state.
It is my great honor to introduce a true champion of student success, whose leadership and vision continue to change lives across New York.
Please join me in welcoming SUNY’s Senior Vice Chancellor for Student Success, Donna Linderman.
—President Nwosu