St. Louis is one of seven communities across the country designated as Talent Hubs by the Lumina Foundation, in partnership with the Kresge Foundation.
Each Talent Hub focuses on raising the nation’s overall post-high school attainment level to 60 percent of working-age adults by 2025. Talent Hub cities are committed to eliminating deep disparities in educational outcomes among African-Americans, Hispanics, and American Indians, who fare poorly in contrast with white and Asian students.
The St. Louis Talent Hub is a collaboration led by St. Louis Graduates, a network of K-12 and higher education, youth-serving non-profit organizations, business and philanthropy dedicated to transforming lives through postsecondary education equity.
“Earning a college degree provides the surest path to economic and social mobility in our society, so we need to ensure that all students are being prepared for postsecondary opportunities regardless of their race or household income,” said Alan Byrd Jr., co-chair of St. Louis Graduates and vice provost for Enrollment Management at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.
“Receiving the Talent Hub designation is validation that this work matters, and it is vital to the future of our region. St. Louis is not likely to reach the 60 percent goal for degree attainment without eliminating educational disparities for low-income students and students of color.”
The other new communities designated as Talent Hubs are Corpus Christi, Texas; Detroit, Michigan; Elkhart County, Indiana; Las Vegas, Nevada; Mobile, Alabama; and Rio Grande Valley, Texas. These cities, along with 17 others selected in 2017, earned this designation by meeting rigorous standards for creating environments that attract, retain, and cultivate talent, particularly among today’s students, many of whom are people of color, the first in their families to go to college, and from low-income households.
Lumina Foundation is an independent, private foundation in Indianapolis with the mission of increasing Americans’ attainment of college degrees and other high-quality credentials beyond high school.
