The Ross Institute for Student Success

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THE ROSS INSTITUTE FOR STUDENT SUCCESS
Helping New Majority students soar to new heights, in college, and in life.

“Higher education transforms lives and communities. It halts the cycle of poverty and opens up opportunities for graduates and their families for generations to come. It strengthens communities and builds a foundation for economic development that benefits all.”

-Sister Kathleen Ross, Ph. D.

At Heritage University, we believe that a college education should be accessible to anyone with the talent and drive to pursue a degree — regardless of economics, culture or geographic location. We have seen many incredible minds walk through our doors who have proven that access to opportunity can make a lifetime of difference.

We believe it is vital to the future of our world to reverse the historical underrepresentation in higher education and community leadership of some cultural and socioeconomic groups. By changing the way we deliver higher education, we can empower New Majority student to more readily attain college degrees and achieve lifelong success.

Kathleen Ross, snjm stands outside the Gaye and Jim Pigott Commons at Heritage University

Lifting up

The New Majority

More likely to drop out of college.

33% of first-generation students leave school within the first three years, compared to 14% of students from families with parents who hold bachelor’s degrees.

Less likely to complete their studies in four years.

By their third year of college, 52% of first-generation students fall behind and take longer than four years to graduate, compared to 34% of their non first-generation peers.

More likely to take more than six years to earn a bachelor’s degree.

90% of first-generation students from low-income households take longer than six years to complete their bachelor’s degree.

Now more than ever, colleges across the United States are diversifying with students who have historically been left out of higher education. They are the “New Majority,” commonly known as first-generation, low-income college students. They often come from a working-class background. And they often are Latino/a, African American, Native American, Pacific Islander or another minority.

New Majority students are eager and smart—seemingly college-ready—but their socio-cultural background often puts them at an extreme disadvantage in an educational environment that is predominately white, middle class and professional.

BUT THERE IS HOPE!

Change the way we deliver higher education while maintaining high academic standards, and we can change student outcomes. That is precisely what Sr. Kathleen Ross discovered when she started Heritage University 40 years ago, and it is the principle behind The Ross Institute for Student Success.

Here at Heritage University, we believe

Education is for Everyone

Our Mission

Heritage University empowers a multi-cultural and inclusive student body to overcome the social, cultural, economic and geographic barriers that limit access to higher education. Rooted in the homeland of the Yakama Nation, we embrace transformational student-centered education that cultivates leadership and a commitment to the promotion of a more just society.

Heritage is home to the New Majority

86% of the student body are people of color
85% are first-generation college students
91% depend upon financial aid to pay for college
65% work at least part-time while attending college

Introducing The Ross Institute for Student Success

With its early successes with New Majority students and its student body that is almost exclusively comprised of this population, Heritage is in a unique position to provide leadership in researching best practices for serving the needs of these students.

The Ross Institute for Student Success, located in existing facilities at Heritage University, is an innovative research center that provides development and training for Heritage faculty to enhance classroom practices and teaching methods. Additionally, the Institute will conduct new research into effective practices and methods developed at Heritage University and beyond.

Visiting scholars will be invited to the Institute to increase their knowledge, conduct new research and share best practices from their work. They and others will participate in symposiums and publications that disseminate their work to Heritage faculty and the wider higher-ed community, building on preliminary research by Dr. Ross, published by Harvard Education Press.

Heritage exists to

Give Talent Opportunity

Heritage graduate smiling during ceremony

I knew I wanted to go to college and that I was capable, but I could not visualize myself there. I knew it took a lot of work and that it went against the cultural norms of my extended family. I thought, ‘I’m a girl. I don’t belong there. I can’t major in math.’ At Heritage, I went from being a little girl who did not believe she was ever going to college, to a confident young woman, aspiring to earn a Ph.D. and become a professor in mathematics, and the belief and confidence that I WILL accomplish it!

Atzimba Martinez, B.S., Mathematics Ph. D. Candidate, Washington University of Saint Louis

After high school, I enrolled at a community college. My experiences there reinforced my belief that college was for other people, not someone like me. I never felt like I fit in. I felt like I was a number. I didn’t even know the questions to ask to get the information I needed to be successful. I was very close to completely giving up on my dream and dropping out of college for good. It was a completely different experience when I transferred to Heritage. There, I felt like I was important and worthy of an education. They believed in me, even when I had a hard time believing in myself.

Veronica CastroB.S., Clinical Laboratory Science

Sister Kathleen Ross:

A life dedicated to helping first-generation college students attain higher education and achieve lifelong success.

The Ross Institute for Student Success Research is named after Sister Kathleen A. Ross, SNJM, and president emerita of Heritage University, which she co-founded in 1982 with Martha B. Yallup and Violet Lumley Rau of the Yakama Nation. The Institute will serve as a legacy to Dr. Ross and continue her groundbreaking work spanning more than four decades. She is a nationally recognized leader in higher education, especially in cross-cultural communication.

Sister Kathleen standing outside the Ross Center with a group of students

In the 1970s,“Sister Kathleen,” as she is popularly known on campus, served as provost of Fort Wright College of the Holy Names in Spokane, Washington, operated by the order of Catholic Sisters to which Sr. Kathleen belongs. She oversaw the creation of outreach programs in the remote towns of Toppenish and Omak that provided place-bound, low-income, and first-generation students the opportunity to earn four-year college degrees.

When Fort Wright College closed, Sister Kathleen, with the help of Yallup and Rau, started Heritage College in Toppenish, located in the homeland of the Yakama Nation. Serving as Heritage’s first president, Sister Kathleen shaped the college’s unique mission and guided its growth from 85 students to more than 1,400 when she stepped down as president in 2010. Since then, Sister Kathleen has remained active in the Heritage community and shared the success of the Heritage model with colleges and universities throughout the United States.

The 11 breakthrough strategies that create a strong, research-based foundation for The Ross Institute.

In her book, BREAKTHROUGH STRATEGIES, Dr. Ross synthesized findings from research with her students into four categories of experiences essential to the success of New Majority college students: Engagement, Belonging, Confidence and Vision. Following are her proven classroom-based practices that transform higher education.

Strategies for Engagement

Engaging students through effective feedback
Helping students ask questions
Engaging students with analogies

Strategies to Promote a Sense of Well Being

Welcoming students with first-day activities
Relating to students’ life situations
Reframing the classroom as community

Strategies to Engender Confidence

Creating confidence: a professor’s role
Journaling for confidence and deeper thinking
Developing students’ own academic ideas

Strategies to Build a Vision for the Future

Envisioning an academic identity: how professors can help
Building professional identities to counter ethnic and gender stereotypes

Watch the "Breakthrough Strategies" Videos

Join us in the campaign for The Ross Institute

Your Support Makes It Possible!

Maria (dressed in graduation regalia) and her parents pose in a hop field

Please join us in helping New Majority students through the formation of an endowed, nationally-recognized research institute at Heritage University. Your gift will move us even closer to raising the critical funds needed to expand this important work. Your support will transform the education and lives of New Majority college students for generations.

Your investment will help:

Recruit the first director of The Ross Institute for Student Success, named for President Emerita Sister Kathleen A. Ross.
Direct research into new and evolving teaching techniques for New Majority students
Lead the ongoing development and training of Heritage University faculty
Share best practices with colleges and universities nationwide through Heritage faculty outreach to other institutions.
Bring visiting scholars to Heritage University to both learn and share their research.

If you would like to learn more about The Ross Institute or alternative ways to support this campaign, please contact the Office of Advancement.

(509) 865-0700

advancement@heritage.edu

Cave Moon Press

Shop now for STEM-focused Young Adult fiction that supports the Ross Institute.

CAMPUS LOCATIONS

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3240 Fort Road
Toppenish, WA 98948

Heritage at Columbia Basin College
2600 N 20th Ave, MS: HU
Pasco, WA 99301

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333 W Canal Dr
Kennewick, WA 99336

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The Ross Institute for Student Success