Welcome to Learning from the Ground Up, a video series that highlights some of the partners we work with to create opportunities for students, families, and communities to learn, grow, and thrive. In these conversations, Gates Foundation leaders get the unique opportunity to engage with on-the-ground experts to explore our shared vision while discovering something new together.
Patrick Methvin and Dr. Mildred García have known each other for almost a decade and deeply admire each other’s work promoting postsecondary value. Dr. García leads the California State University System (the nation’s largest and most diverse four-year public university system with more than 500,000 students across 23 campuses), while Patrick continues to dramatically improve student success beyond high school by serving as director of the Gates Foundation’s Postsecondary Success team for the last seven years.
On a sunny Southern California Monday, Patrick and Dr. García reconnected on the bustling campus of Cal State University – Fullerton (CSUF) to discuss their passion for and collective work advancing postsecondary value and economic mobility for all students. CSUF was the perfect backdrop for this conversation for a few reasons: As former CSUF president, Dr. García has deep ties to the campus community, and the school is nationally ranked for delivering economic mobility for their students (Money, Washington Monthly, Third Way) and was recognized for its commitment to improving student outcomes for all students through a Postsecondary Student Success Grant from the U.S. Department of Education.
When reflecting on what brought her to work in education, Dr. García shared a life lesson from her parents: “The only inheritance a poor family can leave you is a good education.” It was that mentality that led not only to her lifelong career as an educator and leader, but also to her unwavering certainty that college is worth it, and all students should have access to an affordable and valuable degree.
Unfortunately, the certainty held by Dr. García and Patrick that a college degree is worth it, isn’t true for everyone. Colleges graduate just 60% of the students they enroll, and many students never see a return on their investment. At the same time, having an education beyond high school remains critical for success in today’s economy. So, how do we square this circle?
As Patrick notes, part of the challenge was for too long, the higher ed ecosystem was focused on solving barriers to entry (like issues related to access and affordability) without also considering the importance of college completion and return on investment. Now the national conversation among federal and state policymakers, higher ed leaders and advocates, and journalists has expanded to evaluate the value of the degree itself and the whole postsecondary journey.
Completion of a valuable –high-quality degree matters, and Cal State is deeply committed to getting more students across the finish line as evidenced by their Graduation Initiative 2025 -- an ambitious plan to increase graduation rates and eliminate barriers to degree completion to meet California’s workforce needs.
But what do we mean by value? In 2019, the Gates Foundation convened 30 college presidents (including Dr. García), advocates, policymakers, and more to determine how the value of higher education can be defined, measured, and acted on. And the definition the Postsecondary Value Commission landed on is strikingly similar to what Dr. García hears when talks to families: “Yes. It’s about getting a degree. But it’s also about economic independence and economic mobility.”
And it’s also what we’re starting to hear more from students directly – including those from the CSUF Center for Scholars that Patrick and Dr. García had the opportunity to visit with. They shared that on the whole college is worth it, but it’s important to find your individual purpose, and to ensure you’re creating meaningful impact – not just for themselves and their families, but also for their greater community.
Patrick and Dr. García agree that both policymakers (at the federal and state level) and higher ed institutions have a critical role to play in ensuring postsecondary education provides value to students and society. One piece of the value puzzle requires strengthening financial aid policies (like doubling Pell Grants and implementing universal FAFSA completion) while addressing the total cost of attendance – work that Gates and Cal State feel equally passionate about.
To close out their time together, the students at CSUF asked Patrick and Dr. García what their why is – why they do this work. For Patrick, his mother was a teacher, and he saw firsthand that education is the ticket to opportunity. And for Dr. García, she wants to make sure every student has the opportunity she did to get where she is today. It’s this shared purpose that first connected Patrick and Dr. García nearly a decade ago and created myriad opportunities for them to partner together in the effort to improve postsecondary outcomes for all students.