College Access and Equitable Outcomes in Higher Education

I have long known I wanted to work in education specifically working in a career that is geared towards access and equity. After graduating college, I began working at a college access non-profit and a few years later applied to be an associate with the IRT and earned my Master’s in Higher Education. I became interested in working at the community college level after taking a course titled, “The Comprehensive Community College” taught by Northwestern sociology professor James Rosenbaum.

While I always knew that community colleges play an important role in higher education, after taking this course, I realized that if you are passionate about college access and equitable outcomes in higher ed, community colleges need to be at the start of the conversation due to the outsize role they play in providing job training credentials and transfer pathways to folks from marginalized backgrounds.

I immediately began leveraging the Northwestern alumni network to foster connections within the Chicago community college system (known as City Colleges of Chicago) and was able to learn more about potential positions and the application process. Soon after, I applied and was offered a role as a post-secondary navigator, in which I visited a caseload of six alternative high schools, serving students who had dropped out of their initial high school.

My advice to students seeking similar roles would be to build a network of folks already working in the industry and learn from their experiences regarding the job application process. Working for a public entity can be a more delayed and opaque job application process due to the bureaucracy of municipal work. Connect with folks who can guide you and never hesitate to reach out to someone you may not know to learn from their experiences (including myself! I am happy to speak further on my role to whomever is interested).

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City Colleges of Chicago is part of a nationally unique partnership between one of the biggest school districts in the country (Chicago Public Schools) and one of the biggest Community College consortiums in the nation (City Colleges of Chicago, with seven distinct campuses across the city).

My role as a post-secondary navigator is to work directly with high school seniors at options schools in Chicago. Options schools, also known as alternative schools in some districts, are high schools for students for whom their original school did not work out for whatever reason. Many of the students I work with were chronically truant at their old school or had behavioral issues and were forced to switch schools. Options students in CPS are more likely to have experienced homelessness and are more likely to have been incarcerated. In CPS, students can be up to 21 in these schools to work towards earning a high school diploma. 

As a post-secondary navigator, I have a caseload of six option high schools that I visit weekly, working entirely with seniors on enrolling those who are interested in City Colleges. We have a full-ride, last-dollar scholarship called the Options for the Future Scholarship that I can provide to students who are interested in enrolling, regardless of GPA or citizenship status.

This is what I love about my job, I am able to offer a pathway to a free associates degree for students who are interested. 

Ezra Sergent-Leventhal, IRT ’20

As you can imagine, since the roadmap initiative was created, there has been an uptick in enrollment from options students at City Colleges. While I am only about six months in at my job, I am loving it and hope to build a long and impactful career here at City Colleges. 

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Ezra Sergent-Leventhal graduated from Carleton College in 2019, majoring in History and minoring in Educational Studies. Immediately after graduation, Ezra moved to the Chicagoland area and began working at a college access program, working every day in a high school and helping first-generation college applicants through the process of applying to and matriculating to college. In 2021, Ezra left the college access space to work in business school admissions while earning a master’s in higher education at Northwestern University. In June of 2021, Ezra earned a MS and immediately began working in the current role of post-secondary navigator at City Colleges of Chicago.

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