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Conference Sponsors: First Year Programs, University of Connecticut Early College Experience, University of Connecticut Neag School of Education, University of Connecticut |
Keynote Speaker
Michael Lawrence CollinsProgram Director , Jobs for the Future
Mike Collins is a program director at Jobs for the Future (JFF) in the Creating Successful Transitions for Youth Cluster. For the last 12 years, he has worked to improve public education at the local and state levels, working in multiple capacities on education reform and higher education policy. Mr. Collins most recently served as Assistant Commissioner for Participation and Success at the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board where he led the agency’s efforts to increase the number of students enrolling and succeeding in higher education. He also oversaw the implementation of Texas’ Education. Go Get It. Campaign—an innovative, research-based public awareness and motivational campaign to increase student participation and success in the state’s colleges and universities.
Mr. Collins’ work at JFF focuses primarily on state policy issues for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation-funded Early College High School Initiative and the Lumina Foundation for Education-funded Achieving the Dream Initiative, both of which seek to dramatically increase the number of young people from low-income and minority families who attain postsecondary credentials.
Mr. Collins holds an M.A. in bicultural-bilingual studies from the University of Texas at San Antonio and a Master of Public Affairs from the Lyndon Baines Johnson School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin.