Building Trust to Enhance Student Success: Insights From HEOPPO’s Aaron Ray

Aaron Ray, President of the Higher Education Opportunity Program Professional Organization (HEOPPO) and Director of Opportunity Programs at Hamilton College, shared his unique insights into student success during an exclusive panel interview with Kaplan. He highlights how defining "success" goes beyond traditional metrics like GPA, including focusing on a student's personal growth, passion, and ability to navigate their own path. And he emphasizes the importance of intentional, relationship-based support. The following excerpts are taken from the interview.

Briefly describe your organization and share how you uniquely support students.

Aaron Ray: I'm the Director of Opportunity Programs at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, and I also serve as the president of the Higher Education Opportunity Program Professional Organization (HEOPPO). The Arthur O. Eve Higher Education Opportunity Program (HEOP) focuses on dismantling barriers for students by equipping historically underserved students with the resources they need to excel. It is made up of 47 programs across 45 institutions, spanning all regions of New York State. We serve students who are economically unable to afford college. Our students oftentimes do not have access to college, and that's what our programs do. We provide access to independent colleges across New York State and we work very closely, very intentionally with our students throughout their four years and frequently even beyond. 

How are you defining “student success” and based on that, what are your organization’s priorities for your students’ success?

Aaron Ray: In HEOP, we're like a miniature college within the college. We start to meet these students as juniors or seniors in high school. Most directors or assistant directors are on the road recruiting or they're doing online recruiting and we're getting to know students even before they step foot on campus. Then they come to campus in-person in the summer for four to six weeks. That summer program is where we really start to develop relationships with students, getting to know them. Also, they start to know themselves.

When it comes to the question of how we define success, it depends on each student and their goals and lived experiences. It requires a lot of reflection. That's what we're doing specifically at Hamilton. There's a lot of reflection points throughout their four years where they can identify what's working for them, what's not working for them, what are the things they're passionate about, what are the things that they aren't passionate about, and what resources they should take advantage of on campus. That's a lot to navigate as a 17- or 18-year-old. 

For me, success is when students come in and they may not have an idea of what they want to do or they come in and they're going to be pre-med because that's what they know, that's what their parents know, that's what their grandparents know. And in four years, they might not be doing the same thing that they came in wanting to do, but they are excited, they are passionate, and they have a path forward to pursue the things they want to do.

» Related News: The Higher Education Opportunity Program Professional Organization Partners with Kaplan to Offer Free Test Prep for Students at 10 of Its Campuses Across New York State

When it comes to tracking student success, what outcomes are you focused on? What metrics and data are you collecting and analyzing?

Aaron Ray: We do track the traditional metrics, such as GPA, credits attempted versus credits earned, tutoring, contact hours, advisors and contact hours, program attendance, and all that helps to inform us. But, as fellow panelist Renaldo Alba said, if the office is quiet, if students aren't showing up, I think you have a pretty good metric that you're not finding a lot of success. But I'd be hard pressed to find a HEOP office that is not hustling and bustling.

I wish we had one magical platform that would do it all. We use a platform for advising that helps with navigating all the resources. For tutoring, all four academic resource centers on campus use a consistent platform where students can book appointments, they get automatic reminders and then we have access to that data. 

We actually have a Fellow for Academic Belonging who works for our office, but also works with those academic resource centers to track how our first-year students are engaging in those centers specifically. Then we're able to compare their attendance and the work that they do in those academic resource centers to the outcomes at the end of the semester. As you can imagine, the more students go to tutoring, the better their academic performance. 

How are you building the capacity to have longer-term relationships with students?

Aaron Ray: In the summer, HEOP program staff members spend four to six weeks with these students, depending on the program. Specifically at Hamilton, I encourage my staff to eat in the dining hall with students, and we do some evening and weekend programming. It’s not mandatory for staff, but we've built a culture where staff want to and students appreciate getting to know us outside of our office and outside of the classroom. For example, this summer we're taking students whitewater rafting.

As we get to know our students outside of the traditional context, it makes it easier to know when something's not going well. It's easier for them to communicate with us when we're there celebrating their wins and when we come to them. Then when something's not going well, they know we're not the principal's office. We're not just trying to say you're doing something wrong.

It doesn't happen overnight. Some students buy in right at the beginning, but for some other students, it might take two to three years to really build that trust. But oftentimes by the time EOP students are graduating, they have bought into the support model we offer and the relationships that HEOP staff have with students continue on beyond. We're going to weddings, graduation parties, and those kinds of things. But it's not easy. It's very intentional to do this work. It does take up a lot of capacity, but it is rewarding work.

» Related News: Fast Company Names Kaplan’s All Access License® as a Winner in its 2024 World Changing Ideas Awards

Do you have any strategies for navigating disengaged students on your campus?

Aaron Ray: I worked at a different institution right before COVID. Then I came to Hamilton at the peak of COVID and there we transitioned out of the hybrid weirdness. For a couple of years, students were engaging in different ways. This past year was probably the first new normal year where it felt a little bit more like pre-COVID. Granted, I wasn't here pre-COVID, but it felt like what I had experienced at my previous institution. But what I can say is when students weren't as engaged, it was really important for us to receive student input on what they would engage with. 

I think it was hard for us as professionals to conceptualize that these students were virtual during their most formative years around social engagement—they were in middle school at that time—and now we're about to bring them into college. So, they're going to be a little bit different than the students that we've had in the last couple of years. And this might continue to evolve for the next decade. The way my daughter engages, it's very different from how I engaged in first grade. Students know what they want and so if you can pull that information from them and apply it, just the fact that you're showing interest in hearing what they think and what they want to engage with should earn you a little bit more buy-in.

In looking forward to five years from now, what do you think is higher education's biggest opportunity?

Aaron Ray: Higher education institutions as a whole were built by employees and faculty with all different lived experiences and backgrounds. We're unique in that we're on the same campus, we're in the same area. But sometimes there are silos. If we can break down some of those silos over the next five years, there's nothing our institutions can't do. There are a lot of challenges we're going to face over the next five years, but we're equipped with the people and the spirit to solve those problems.

New Approaches Driving Student Success

HEOPPO continues to open doors for student success through its recent launch offering free, industry-leading test preparation courses to students at 10 campuses across New York State. In partnership with Kaplan’s All Access License®, courses available to these HEOP students at no-cost include the GRE^®, GMAT™, LSAT^®, MCAT^®, DAT, as well as the NCLEX-RN^®.

Equipping students with the resources they need to be successful on critical exams for graduate school, professional school, or licensure will help level the playing field and empower them to achieve their career goals. On this new program, Aaron shared: “For more than 55 years, the Arthur O. Eve Higher Education Opportunity Program (HEOP) has focused on dismantling barriers and equipping historically underserved students with the resources they need to excel—on campus and long after they graduate. Our new partnership with Kaplan’s All Access License advances that mission by placing world‑class graduate‑test preparation directly into our students’ hands, at no cost to them. I am deeply grateful to the colleagues at our 10 participating institutions, and at Kaplan, who championed this effort. Together, we are widening the pathway to advanced degrees and professional careers, and I can’t wait to watch our HEOP scholars seize this opportunity and lead the way forward.”

Help your students prepare for success with Kaplan's All Access License.