Michigan College Access Network's 15th Birthday Section

Journal of College Access Volume 10 Issue 4 Article 3 10-30-2025 Michigan College Access Network's 15th Birthday Section Ryan Fewins-Bliss Michigan College Access Network, Jamie Jacobs Michigan College Access Network, Brandy Johnson Michigan Community College Association, Sharon Mortensen Midland Area Community Foundation, Greg Handel Detroit Regional Chamber, See next page for additional authors Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/jca Part of the Higher Education Commons Recommended Citation Fewins-Bliss, Ryan; Jacobs, Jamie; Johnson, Brandy; Mortensen, Sharon; Handel, Greg; and Altman Smith, Caroline (2025) "Michigan College Access Network's 15th Birthday Section," Journal of College Access: Vol. 10: Iss. 4, Article 3. Available at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/jca/vol10/iss4/3 This Guest Perspective is brought to you for free and open access by the Western Michigan University at ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of College Access by an authorized editor of ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact . Michigan College Access Network's 15th Birthday Section Authors Ryan Fewins-Bliss, Jamie Jacobs, Brandy Johnson, Sharon Mortensen, Greg Handel, and Caroline Altman Smith This guest perspective is available in Journal of College Access: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/jca/vol10/iss4/3 This Special Section celebrates the 15th Birthday of the Michigan College Access Network (MCAN) and features the remarks made at their 15th Birthday Celebratory Event on August 23, 2025. Volume 10 | October 2025 | Issue 4 9 MCAN’s 15th Birthday Watch this 4-Minute video entitled, “Reflecting on 15 Years: A Conversation With MCAN's Founders” featuring MCAN founder Brandy Johnson and the original MCAN team: Jamie Jacobs, Sarah Anthony, Ryan Fewins-Bliss, and Christi Taylor. Watch this video featuring highlights from MCAN's 15th Birthday Gala. Volume 10 | October 2025 | Issue 4 10 Fifteen Years of Impact: Celebrating MCAN’s Journey and Vision for Michigan's Future Fifteen years ago, Michigan faced a critical gap in its higher education landscape. While other states had established systems and leadership to guide postsecondary access and attainment, Michigan stood alone—the only state without a higher education executive officer or coordinated infrastructure to champion college opportunity for its residents. What emerged from that challenge was something remarkable: the Michigan College Access Network (MCAN), an organization born from necessity but driven by vision. Built intentionally outside state government to maintain nimbleness and innovation, MCAN became the voice Michigan students needed—particularly those who had been systematically left behind by traditional pathways to postsecondary success. Together, these six reflections capture both the audacious beginning and the substantial present of an organization that has never wavered from its core mission: shifting systems from sifting and sorting students to truly supporting them. These are the stories of how a gap became an opportunity, and how that opportunity became a movement that continues to grow stronger with each passing year. Volume 10 | October 2025 | Issue 4 11 15th Birthday Reflections: Greg Handel, MCAN Founding Board Member and Vice President of Education and Talent Programs at Detroit Regional Chamber It’s a privilege to be with you today as MCAN’s founding board chair and to reflect on the early days of the Michigan College Access Network — a movement that began with a bold vision and a sense of urgency. system, no state department. This gap meant no one was focused on how college access, attainment, and equity could move Michigan forward - both educationally and economically. So, we made a bold decision: to build something new. To create an organization that would wake up every day and focus on postsecondary attainment on behalf of Michiganders. That organization became the Michigan College Access Network, purposefully built outside of state government, so it could be nimble, innovative, and enduring. Governor Granholm appointed the first board, and I was honored to be among those founding members. Back in 2009, Michigan was at a crossroads. The “...they shaped what MCAN State had received a is today — a force for federal grant from the postsecondary access, for Obama Administration to economic mobility, and for advance education and opportunity but Gov. the belief that every student Granholm wanted a more in Michigan deserves the strategic use of those opportunity to succeed.” funds. She turned to her sharp, energetic policy advisor — a young professional named Fifteen years later, I’m proud to still serve Brandy Johnson — and asked her to dig alongside two of my fellow original board deeper and take a look around and what we members and 11 other passionate leaders. We could do better. Brandy discovered that knew, even then, that this was about more Michigan was the only state in the country than programs — it was about systems without a SHEEO — a state higher education change. executive officer. That means there was no state higher education infrastructure - no state From the start, MCAN set ambitious goals. In 2010, we aligned with the Lumina Volume 10 | October 2025 | Issue 4 12 15th Birthday Reflections: Greg Handel, MCAN Founding Board Member and Vice President of Education and Talent Programs at Detroit Regional Chamber Foundation’s “Big Goal”: that by 2025, 60% of working-age adults in Michigan would hold a postsecondary degree or certificate. This wasn’t just aspirational — it was essential for Michigan’s future. Those early steps weren’t easy, but they were decisive. And they shaped what MCAN is today — a force for postsecondary access, for economic mobility, and for the belief that every student in Michigan deserves the opportunity to succeed. I’m so proud to have been part of MCAN’s founding. I’m proud to continue to help us grow and thrive. And I’m proud to help lead businesses and industry - the beneficiaries of an educated workforce - to invest in this work in Southeast Michigan. Volume 10 | October 2025 | Issue 4 13 15th Birthday Reflections: Jamie Jacobs, Deputy Director at MCAN What an absolute joy ● This year, we connected 8,000 adult learners it is to be here to postsecondary opportunities. tonight, celebrating ● Our AmeriCorps programs delivered over 15 years of impact, 160,000 hours of service to Michigan students. growth, and the This past year alone, they served more than unwavering belief 56,000 students and assisted with the that college is for submission of more than 7,400 FAFSAs, and everyone. That supported over 2,000 students to persist in video, and Greg’s remarks remind us how college. far we’ve come. From six passionate team Our grantmaking, members with a bold investing directly into vision to a statewide communities and “What hasn’t changed is our changemakers across the moveme (...truncated)