The second cohort for the Marshall For All program began its college career this year.

The Marshall For All program is MU President Brad Smith’s goal that in ten years, Marshall students will graduate from the university debt free.

Jennifer Jimison, the director of the program, said this year’s cohort was made up of 100 students, the same as the previous year. Students who had their FAFSA on file and were fully admitted to the university were randomly selected by a third-party organization.

“We just had a third party run a list of all those students, and then, we just went down to pick the first 100 students,” Jimison said. “Then, if students didn’t respond by a certain day or they decided they were going to go to college somewhere else, or, you know, whatever their plans were, then we go to an alternate list.”

Jimison said students in the program are given tuition support and exclusive classes to test how successful the program will be in the future.

One difference between the second cohort and the first cohort was the decision to allow transfer students to be considered, Jimison said.

Jimison said there are currently 180 students in the Marshall For All program; the first cohort lost 20 students since last fall.

While students were lost, Jimison said she was able to learn how to better help students in the future.

“I learned that you have to do early intervention, and you have to identify students who are struggling,” Jimison said.

Working with the students can range from finding study groups to helping them overcome failure.

“I had one girl – she bombed her first test back a few weeks ago, and she was devastated,” Jimison said. “She’s like, ‘Well, if I’m too stupid to do this, I shouldn’t be in college.’”

Students in the Marshall For All program take exclusive classes. Students first take a career class to explore careers they may have never considered. When the students enter their sophomore year, they are required to take a financial literacy course. Eventually, these courses will be open to all Marshall students.

As part of the program, Jimison said the plan is to track the cohorts once they graduate to measure their career success. Alongside that, Alumni Affairs will reach out to graduates to bring them on as mentors.

“I believe that they will be in touch with the Alumni Affairs because we’re going to want these students to mentor other students coming up,” Jimison said.

Alongside the classes, Jimison said the cohorts will be testing a financial literacy software that tracks where one is in their life and can teach one about topics such as insurance or financing a car. The program will eventually be made available to all Marshall students, and Jimison said the program could also be made available to alumni.

“It’s a program that should be able to just follow them for the rest of their lives and help them understand interest in buying a home and financing a car,” Jimison said.

Jimison said she believes the students in the program are very grateful for the opportunity. One student from the first cohort even stepped up to serve as a mentor for the second cohort.

Outside of the tuition support and the exclusive classes, Jimison said the only other support students receive is the community aspect of the program.

“It’s like a community,” Jimison said. “You have the Greeks, and you have the athletes; this is just another cohort of students that are bonded.”

While the program helps the students, Jimison said she believes there are still ways the program can improve to help not just students in the cohorts, but students across all of campus.

Jimison said she would like to see improved mental health services available for students. Alongside that, she would like to see better efforts made to inform students of the resources available to them.

Jimison said she had a student who, after getting caught in the rain a few weeks ago, had to send their laptop off for cleaning. Jimison had to help the student find where to go to get a replacement laptop. Because the student did not ask the right questions to ask IT, Jimison had to go with the student to get a replacement laptop.

Currently, Jimison does not have any expectations of how many students will return next semester. Either way, she believes she is fully prepared to support students case by case.

Nolan Duncan can be contacted at [email protected].