In 1999, 10,000 Degrees made a very intentional and transformative shift in our mission – from the long-held belief in meritocracy, which has only rewarded and perpetuated the privileged culture, to one of equity. We did this to ensure opportunity for
those who had been historically underrepresented in higher education.
10,000 Degrees believes in the potential of all students, and equity is at our core. Our mission is to achieve educational equity and to support students from low-income backgrounds to and through college to positively impact their communities and the
world.
Educational attainment continues to remain relative to race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. The data shows that students from low-income backgrounds and students who are Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and from other marginalized groups have never had
access to equitable opportunities along the educational pipeline.
To ensure our program was more accessible, we removed components of our application that posed barriers for entry. This resulted in eliminating GPAs and test scores as requirements and moved us to a strengths-based approach in all our work.
When students do not perform at certain academic levels, this is most often due to not having the opportunities or resources to achieve along the educational pipeline, as compared to their white and more affluent peers. At 10,000 Degrees, we dedicate
100% of our resources to serving students from low-income backgrounds and recognize community college as a strong pathway to a four-year degree. Our scholarships are need-based and renewable regardless of a student's starting point.
We became intentional about providing near-peer support to our students by training and investing in young leaders to serve as our Fellows. These near-peer mentors are recent college graduates and are not only college content experts, but also culturally
competent and alumni of our program who often share similar lived experiences and backgrounds as our students.
We have developed into a robust, diverse organization, with 70 staff members, 86% of whom are Black, Indigenous, Latinx, or people of color, and almost half are alums of the program.
But this is not enough. Even though we are a very diverse organization built on the principle of equity, we are white at the very top and at risk of maintaining structural racism and perpetuating white supremacy if we don’t intentionally challenge our
implicit biases and power structures.
So, at 10,000 Degrees we are demanding more from ourselves.
Our goal: a vision and an action-oriented plan to achieve racial equity throughout the organization and a thriving culture of inclusivity and belonging for all. This includes each staff and board member engaging in self-examination of their own implicit
bias, reflection on our relationships internally and externally, and an analysis of our policies, practices, and processes.
Here’s what we’re doing:
We are taking thoughtful action and devoting resources to further develop our anti-racism work, and creating policies and practices with intention and compassion that honor and value all lives, particularly those of Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and
people of color.
Our board of directors established the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee. Their charter is to dismantle structural racism and ensure inclusive representation at the governance level and governing practices that cultivate a culture of belonging
and inclusivity. They are working with a consultant to lead us through a learning journey and ongoing dialogue about our racial identity and white supremacy culture.
Our Strategic Planning Committee of the board created a staff and board work team to ensure that diversity, equity, and inclusion are prioritized and infused throughout our organization, strategies, programs, and processes.
We retained Koya Partners to co-create and administer a comprehensive organizational culture survey to help us identify areas for improvement and focus.
We are listening. Our leadership is listening to staff, Fellows, and students to better understand their experiences and perspectives, and together with our board of directors, we are reading, learning, and examining our white privilege, white
supremacy culture, and implicit biases.
Cross-department dialog spaces are being created between executive leadership and multiple teams across the organization, and where board and staff have opportunities to get to know one another better.
We are implementing several feedback mechanisms, including administering annual all-staff surveys regarding strategic planning, growth, and organizational culture. We are working toward institutionalizing ongoing feedback loops.
We are creating spaces for empowering racial identity, inclusivity, and healing. We are working with expert consultants to help 1) facilitate affinity and employee resource groups, 2) provide workshops on healing, coaching, and wellness, and 3)
engage our executive team on a learning journey around white privilege, white supremacy culture, and anti-racism.
We are developing a more robust human resource support structure to ensure that staff is developed, supported, and have optimal professional development opportunities.
Several staff members have been promoted into supervisory and leadership roles and we are committed to growing the Fellowship program beyond programs and throughout all departments within the organization.
All staff is receiving supervisory and management training, especially on coaching others, giving feedback, and establishing and maintaining professional boundaries.
We are investing in individual coaching opportunities.
An Employee Recruitment Advisory Council was developed to ensure diverse recruitment, hiring panels for all new hires have been instituted, and we are engaging a recruitment firm to assist us with a senior hire.
We expanded our executive team, which until last year included only four white females, to include a new chief program officer and director of strategic growth and school partnerships. Each position brings a new and different perspective to the team
as well as similar lived experiences as our students.
We are examining all of our policies, practices, and procedures.
We are evaluating advocacy policies and practices to ensure everything we do is helping to create educational equity and a racially just environment. We are committing to raise awareness of the educational disparities in the communities we serve.
We are re-examining all program and scholarship policies and practices to ensure equitable opportunities for our students.
We are examining decision-making processes and communication structures to be inclusive, transparent, and accountable.
We are making sure all teams include a diversity of perspectives and lived experiences.
This is only the beginning. Together, our board and staff have committed to an ongoing journey of learning and growing, and to develop our vision with a plan and accountabilities. It is our intention that over time, we will create change and movement
toward truly becoming an anti-racist organization and a community of inclusivity and belonging.
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