Impact Stories
Pritzker Access Scholars: Scholarships with impact
Motivated by a goal to provide educational and career opportunities for undocumented high school students, the Pritzker Traubert Foundation and Pritzker Foundation in 2015 launched the Pritzker Access Scholars program with the Noble network of charter schools.
PAS provided full college scholarships and other crucial services to 405 undocumented high school seniors, supporting them to earn college degrees and change the trajectories of their lives and the lives of their families. Twenty-six colleges and universities partnered with the foundations.
Later, TheDream.US, the nation’s largest college and career success program for undocumented immigrant youth, also became a partner.
“In a world where life seemed so out of my control, suddenly, I had a future to look forward to,” scholar Karina Ortega Dominguez recalled of the day she learned that she’d receive a scholarship.
She graduated with a double major in math and economics. Today Karina runs a program that rewards teachers for exemplary work in Noble Schools.
PAS’ POWERFUL 'EFFECT
194 of the 306
scholars who entered college in 2015-19 earned bachelor’s degrees–a rate of nearly 64%.
Almost 70%
of PAS recipients who’d earned bachelor’s degrees, were employed full-time or continuing their education as of November 2023.
3 in 4
undocumented Noble students remained enrolled at the fifth semester in college from 2015-19 - a higher rate than documented peers.
Nearly 63%
of the 99 PAS students who entered college in 2021 and 2022 are persisting.
15 times
— the amount a student’s lifetime earnings increase for every dollar invested in a scholarship and administrative costs for a PAS recipient.