Brian Oates
Even as a high school freshman in Alexandria (Campbell County), Chloe Hein knew her education wasn’t going to end the moment she graduated high school.
“As soon as I started high school, I knew I really wanted to get a good GPA so I could save up enough money to go to college,” she said.
She had her eye on Centre College and its strong study-abroad program, but she wasn’t sure it would be attainable.
Enter Hannah Stokes, a 2013 Centre graduate hired to run the college’s Kessler Scholars Program, a guidance and mentoring program supporting first-generation college students.
“Centre’s history with first-gen student support and success has long been something we’re very proud of,” Stokes said. “We’ve worked really hard to get to where we are with our first-gen programming, and the Kessler Program … recognized that in us.”
Centre welcomed its first class of Kessler scholars for the 2023-2024 academic year last fall. Hein, who was raised by a single mom, was among them.
“When Hannah reached out with the Kessler Program, I thought, ‘Oh my gosh. This is actually something I’m able to do,’ ” Hein said. “No one else [in my family] got to go to college, but now I’m here. I can prove that my mom’s struggles were worth it, and they got me here.”
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The Kessler Scholars Program is not a scholarship program, though scholars do receive $5,600 for “high-impact” college enhancement opportunities they otherwise couldn’t afford, such as books, laptops and study-abroad funding.
That financial boost is a special feature, but Stokes said it’s not the program’s greatest perk.
“The Kessler program is intended for first-gen students who are low income but also have a high capacity for success if they’re part of a mentor program,” Stokes said. “They are coming to college with a sense of resiliency, really strong senses of leadership, and they’re very determined to succeed … We really like to capture those qualities and make sure students feel those are amplified.”
In addition to one-on-one mentoring, the Kessler Scholars Program uses a cohort-based model to bring fellow first-gen students together.
“When you meet a student, you don’t know they are first gen. So, it makes it difficult to navigate a college experience when they don’t know who else is experiencing college like they are,” Stokes said. “The cohort model allows students to really connect in a smaller community capacity, where they can lean on each other as a family unit. As they work together and collaborate and share experiences, it becomes a tight-knit support system for them from the beginning of their college journey all the way through graduation and sometimes beyond.”
Kessler scholar Ryan Jones used his funding to kick off his second college semester with a study-abroad trip to Spain. In a phone interview before leaving, the London native said having that financial fallback is great, but meeting fellow first-gen students last fall made his college experience much better.
“I think I would be in worse shape [without the Kessler community],” Jones said. “It’s all just been a really big help, especially as a first gen.”
“[Centre] is a really small school, so being able to see people that I know from the Kessler Program all the time has been really lovely, and the cohorts are so close knit because we are a smaller campus,” Hein agreed.
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Centre College is one of 16 colleges and universities across the country and the only one in Kentucky to be a part of the national Kessler Scholars Collaborative, which receives funding and support from the Judy and Fred Wilpon Family Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies and the American Talent Initiative. As part of the national collaborative, Centre and fellow member institutions—as well as scholars—can network with each other.
“It is an honor to be part of it,” Stokes said. “Our students really get to benefit from that national network experience. We get to benefit, as a college, by the collaboration that we all share.”
Although this is the first academic year for Centre’s Kessler Scholars Program, Stokes said the inaugural class already has established a strong foundation to impact not only its students’ futures but the future of the first-gen program and the college itself.
“We spent quite a bit of time last fall talking about academic foundations for success, identifying resources for that,” Stokes said. “We also talk about how [the students] can plug those leadership skills and talents into areas of service, areas of social life, social justice and community impact. They’re starting to identify in this first year where that impact is going to be most beneficial to them and their community members around them.”
Stokes said while they continue to develop a greater sense of independence and confidence in navigating their college lives, scholars will be called upon to serve as leaders in the Kessler program.
“They’ll help to influence some of the activities we design,” she said. “They may serve as ambassadors for the program, talk to the press, or lead a tour. They get to serve in a significant capacity to help serve [the Kessler program] but to also help make sure that the Kessler experience is prestigious and impactful.”
Hein is all in to make sure that happens.
“It’s a great program, and I really hope it expands to other colleges,” she said. “It’s really been something special so far.”