Continued American Talent Initiative membership

In 2016, Ohio State was a founding member of the American Talent Initiative, a collaborative effort to enroll and graduate an additional 50,000 highly talented, limited-income students at top colleges and universities across the United States by 2025. The initiative is a partnership between Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Aspen Institute, Ithaka S+R, and a diverse array of public and private member institutions working to enhance access and support, share innovative best practices, and contribute to research that will help expand opportunity. Ohio State’s former President Michael V. Drake served on the steering committee of the initiative from its beginnings, and the university helped serve as a leader as the initiative grew from its initial 30 colleges to more than 100 today. Ohio State’s membership in the initiative has helped increase the graduation rates of the university’s Pell-eligible students by focusing attention and strategic planning around the success of this population, including the rollouts of the President’s Affordability Grant and Buckeye Opportunity Program. In 2021, President Kristina M. Johnson, who joined Ohio State in September 2020, recommitted to ATI’s goal of enrolling and graduating more low- and moderate-income students. President Johnson also recently committed to Ohio State becoming the first university to offer a zero-debt bachelor’s degree at scale.

Ohio State’s local committee for American Talent Initiative efforts is co-chaired by Shanna Jaggars (AVP, OSAS Research and Program Assessment) and David L. Roy (Director of Academic and Diversity Initiatives, Undergraduate Admissions). For more information about Ohio State’s participation in the American Talent Initiative, contact Shanna Jaggars.