The success of the Career Coach program is the lead story in online journal Inside Higher Education today, citing the program as “Virginia’s answer to President Obama’s call for every American to have at least one year of postsecondary education.”

Elizabeth Whiston-Dean from New River Community College (a career coach at Pulaski County Senior High School), Tidewater Community College’s Nicole Walker, a career coach at Booker T. Washington and Bayside High Schools, and John Tyler Community College’s Jasmine Philip, a career coach at Petersburg High School, are each featured and quoted about their successes working with students who have questions about education and workforce opportunities open to them.

While they aren’t strictly advocates for community college enrollment — “I don’t work on commission. I do my job based on what’s best for the student,” says Whiston-Dean — nevertheless, awareness of postsecondary opportunities has boosted community college enrollment 7 percent higher in high schools with career coaches, compared with those without.

As one career coach says,

Sometimes, it is just a matter of showing qualified students that college is an option for them.