This module brought the leadership series full circle for me by placing it squarely inside the world I work in every day. Professor Bowen's research named what many of us in higher education already feel in our bones — that completion, not access, is the defining challenge of our industry. Students are getting through the door, but too many never make it to the finish line, and the ones most at risk are those from modest and middle-income circumstances.
The research on financial aid was especially powerful. Low-income students are deeply price-sensitive to completion — not just enrollment — while high-income students show no correlation at all. That forces a hard question about where institutional resources go. Merit aid without a need-based lens does not move the needle for the students whose completion is most at stake. The concept of undermatching was also eye-opening — qualified students are being lost at the application stage, not because they can't do the work, but because they lack the information and support to see the door in front of them. That is a leadership failure, not a student failure. And the statistic that 40.4 million Americans have started college without finishing a credential makes clear this is a national economic problem, not just an institutional metric.
What this module crystallized for me is that leadership in higher education is not just about running a school — it is about shaping the national future, one student at a time. In my role at the Amherst Early College Center, I have the privilege of working in a model that directly addresses these barriers. Dual enrollment attacks price sensitivity, combats undermatching, and builds momentum toward completion before traditional barriers take hold. Going forward, I want to think more systemically, advocate for need-based support over merit-only approaches, and plan my leadership legacy around completion and contribution. Every student who walks across the stage because someone took the time to lead them well is a piece of that legacy — and that is work worth doing.
With Benevolence, Shannon
