SERVING VULNERABLE POPULATIONS

Felicia has more than 25 years developing, producing, and supporting programs to close the achievement gaps for vulnerable student populations and their families. Whether it is programs for students of color, non-traditional returning students, students aging out of foster care, or veteran students, Felicia is keenly focused on ensuring that these students have the best collegiate experience, coupled with impactful support that gets them to the graduation stage. Here are three examples!

Students of Color

Felicia’s work researching and implementing successful programs for Men of Color has been nationally recognized by scholars in the study of minority male student success. Based upon research conducted by Luke Wood, Frank Harris III, and Shaun Harper, Felicia developed and implemented the Maricopa Community Colleges’ Male Empowerment Network (MEN). Pulling from best practices of other initiatives for students of color, surveying male students in the district, and identifying what does not work for male students, Felicia’s and her co-pilot, Dr. Ray Ostos, built out a pilot model that was implemented throughout the Maricopa Community Colleges in 2013. WIthin two years, the program increased retention rates, academic success, and graduation rates of African American, American Indian, and Latino male student in the district by more than 15%.

With the growing success of the MInority Male Initiative, a minority female initiative was developed to provide additional support for African American, American Indian, Latino and South Asian female students in the Maricopa District. In addition to creating a “sisterhood” and a sense of belonging for women of color on campus, Women Rising, focused on leadership development, non-traditional career opportunities, and corporate mentoring. While Maricopa’s female students were persisting and graduating at higher rates than their male counterparts, they were not seeing the success of their academic work in their initial job and salary placements. Through partnerships with Intel, AARP, City of Phoenix, College Success America, Dress for Success, and Achieving My Purpose, the Women Rising program provided young women with opportunities to garner the necessary skills to be competitive in the workplace.

More recently, Felicia has worked with Bucks County Community College in increasing its enrollment of students of color through implementing both academic and social initiatives that create a welcoming environment as well as a sense of belonging for students who do not see themselves represented in the faculty and staff of the college. Within 2 years, this work netted a 6% increase in enrollment of students of color at the college.

Bridging Success for Foster Youth

From an unsolicited grant opportunity with the Nina Mason Pulliam Trust, Felicia and Dr. Ostos built out a foster youth program for any student in the state of Arizona who spent time in the foster care system. In partnership with the State of Arizona and local foster/adoption agencies, the Bridging Success program was born! Bridging Success included a training program for foster youth advocates across the district, single point of contact to handle documentation and registration issues for students, initiatives and programs to address targeted challenges for this student population, access to coaches that are trained to support foster students aging out of foster care. As important, the Bridging Success program leveraged the connections with all public serving agencies to ensure that a foster student could secure and maintain housing, living allowances, transportation, food, and college related equipment without having to go to multiple agencies.

Veterans

In 2000, Felicia had the awesome opportunity to develop and curate a veteran student initiative to specifically serve the largest Naval training station in the world. Aside from providing classes on site at the Naval Training Center, there was a need for additional support beyond courses. Addressing both the incoming recruits' needs as well as the naval officers and enlisted who were stationed there, Felicia researched services and programs other colleges and universities (in cities where large military bases were located) were doing to serve veterans and their families. From the research, Felicia successfully applied for federal and state funding to create a veterans center that addressed enrollment needs, GI Bill and other military academic funding, veteran transcripts, and veteran-student success initiatives.

In 2012, Felicia, along with Ms. Andrea Banks, Mary O Connor, and Dr. Ray Ostos, embarked on the creation of a district-wide veterans initiative for Maricopa Community Colleges. Partnering with the State of Arizona Department of Veterans Services, military bases in Arizona, local municipalities, and veteran serving organizations, regional veterans service centers were opened to support veterans, current military personnel, and their families. Raising more than $10M, the Maricopa Veterans Initiative ensured that all 10 colleges within the district would be able to open and sustain a veteran student center on their campuses.

In 2021, Felicia bought her wealth of experience in supporting veterans and military personnel to Bucks County! With a grant from the Bucks County Commissioners, Felicia opened a Veterans Center on the Newtown Campus and expanded the services for veterans on the Bristol Campus. This Center included hiring new personnel to advise and support enrolled veteran students.