Summary
America Needs You (ANY) is a NYC-based nonprofit providing mentorship and intensive career development for first-generation college students. Today, only 11% of low-income, first-generation college students in the US receive bachelor’s degrees within six years of enrolling in college citing issues such as navigating a complex higher education system, financial challenges, and the inability to connect classroom learning with long-term opportunity (The Pell Institute, 2008). ANY supports ambitious first-generation students, called “Fellows,” as they complete their degrees and secure post-college employment, providing a path to economic mobility for themselves and their families.
ANY leadership had been exploring the idea of digitizing its curriculum prior to the pandemic. When COVID-19 hit North America, the company created a working group to research learning management systems. As a small nonprofit, cost was a primary factor. ANY chose the Free For Teacher Canvas LMS option and, 3 weeks after the beginning of NYC’s lockdown, rolled out its first virtual programming. After a year of using FFT, ANY is now implementing a paid Canvas LMS instance to further expand and support its virtual program that supports first-generation college students across America.
The Challenge
America Needs You (ANY) is a small nonprofit with a prudent budget and a huge mission. Each location of the program was functioning independently until the forced digital transformation of the pandemic. ANY searched for an affordable platform within which to digitize workshops, curriculum, and provide a one stop shop for mentor and Fellow engagement and professional development. The nonprofit needed to continue supporting students whether they were completing the program in person or online. Multiple streams of communication meant that messages were sometimes missed by Fellows, and digital literacy was not a focus of the program despite its importance in career development. Both of these challenges would be solved with the implementation of Canvas LMS.
We can't expect the old model to grow into the future. We know what we do works and builds growth for students, and we must embrace a semi-digital experience to better prepare students for the future. The digital world is here to stay and we would not be serving our Fellows effectively if we were ignoring digital efficacy. The skills of finding resources in Canvas sets them up for success whether they go into graduate school or the workforce.
Nick Geremia
Program Director
The Solution
With Canvas, the Program Directors at ANY are able to develop workshop content once and let each program site edit according to its needs. The number of emails going back and forth between the nonprofit staff, mentors, and Fellows decreased significantly since all communication was in one platform. Resumes, interview prep, and training modules were all uploaded into Canvas which, “cut down on the noise and allows us to function as if we are in person,” said Program Partnerships Director, Nick Geremia. In particular, the gradebook feature in the paid Canvas account helps the nonprofit in monitoring student professional development progress. The creation of pre-workshop models in Canvas was a game changer for ensuring Fellows were able to fully participate in workshops and Mentor Coaches knew what to expect and how to support Fellows in the program. Beyond supporting Fellows and mentors, the benefits extend, “to the program team to do more case support and less workshop prep because everything is centralized.”
The nonprofit chose to test Canvas LMS through the free version called, “Free for Teacher.” After a year of testing and allocating budget, ANY has chosen to move to a paid Canvas account in Fall 2021. “The paid instance of Canvas LMS is solving for more functionality and control. The Free for Teacher account was great for getting content in users’ hands, while the paid instance gives us more access to functionality and support,” Geremia explained.
The Results
As the team prepares to switch to a paid Canvas account in Fall 2021, eyes are on the future of possibilities for the nonprofit and Canvas. “Our long-term goal is to reach more students. Having a platform like Canvas that anyone with internet access and a phone can use allows us to be innovative with our program model. Partnering with Instructure has allowed us to have an avenue for bringing our curriculum to more people as we develop in robust ways outside of our operating sites. We are very excited for deeper impact in the future to affect strong professional development for first generation students nationwide!” Geremia said.
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