Two days before Mother’s Day, Mahone walked the stage thinking of the one precious family member who couldn’t be there — but her presence was deeply felt. His mother, Tara Mahone, was the inspiration and impetus behind Mahone’s completion of his third degree from UofL, a in the College of ������Ƶ and Human Development.

“She, along with my father, did a phenomenal job raising me and my brothers, presenting opportunities to us and leading us,” said the Hopkinsville, Ky., native. “She was a living example from the beginning.” His mother’s model included investing time in their hometown leadership programs serving others in the community, which Mahone emulated with his own involvement in programs including Boys and Girls Clubs, Youth Leadership and Upward Bound.

Mahone said he watched his mother earn two associate degrees and a bachelor’s degree despite undergoing dialysis for renal failure, all while raising three sons. Then, while Mahone was earning a degree at UofL, she was completing her own master’s degree in criminal justice at the University of Cincinnati. “We had this fun back and forth on who would get the best grades each semester,” he said.

But in January 2021, Tara Mahone was unexpectedly diagnosed with Covid-19. Within three days, she was hospitalized, and only five days later, she passed away. “That cut me to the core,” he said. “It’s tough when the first person you lose is your mom.” Added to that pain was the fact that Daquarius’s mother passed just months before his wedding.

Making his journey count

Mahone said he knew early on that his own path would lead to UofL. When he first toured the campus with Upward Bound, a federally-funded college preparation program, he knew he was home.

“It felt really close knit, just big enough.” With financial assistance from a , Mahone entered UofL and completed his Bachelor of Science in Communication in 2017. A short while later, he became a university employee, working first as an administrative assistant and then program coordinator at the on campus while pursuing his master’s degree.

Mahone said it was his mom’s spiritual faith and love for serving youth that was his catalyst to pursue a PhD degree in 2022.

“I was looking through student development theories and how students overcome adversities,” Mahone explained. He studied the theory of community cultural wealth, which examines forms of “capital” students can use to succeed.

“When I think of my mom on dialysis and yet still getting a degree in community college, and being a wife, and raising sons who play sports, that’s aspirational capital.”

Mahone’s guiding principle is to impart future college students with a sense of belonging and inspiration around what they can contribute to society.

A rising tide

In 2024, Mahone got an opportunity to bring these theories to life when he became director of , a newly launched college readiness program at UofL. Designed to serve students in grades 8-12 and help bridge the educational divide for first-generation students, the program seeks to build a thriving college-going culture. Cardinals Rising held a reception in April to welcome its first 60-student cohort to campus.

“Our vision is a community where the talent and potential of all students is recognized and nurtured, and they contribute to the workforce of the city and state through collaboration and innovation,” he said.

Coming full circle

“The last thing my mother said to me while she was alive was ‘I am more than a conqueror,’” said Mahone, a Biblical reference to Romans 8:37. The passage assures believers they can transcend challenges and transform their lives.

Having overcome many hardships himself and achieving this most recent dream, Mahone is glad to help others do the same.

“And so that’s aspiration capital, spiritual capital, all coming alive,” Mahone said. “I am fortunate to be in a place where I have hope, and I feel that a great deposit was left for me and through me.”

Jennifer Morton, an associate professor of philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania, earned the prize for her ideas in “Moving Up without Losing Your Way: The Ethical Costs of Upward Mobility.” Princeton University Press published the in 2019.

The dream of achieving success by attending college is deeply flawed for some, says Morton, a first-generation college student who left Peru to attend Princeton. Drawing on her own experience, philosophical and social science research and interviews with first-generation, low-income and immigrant students, she found that the college experience often forces students to turn away from family and friends to achieve academic success.

For example, one student caring for an ill sister told Morton she had missed so many classes and assignment due dates she wasn’t sure she could catch up. Another student said he had cut ties with his community to be able to manage college.

“First-generation students are often putting their relationships with friends, family and their communities on the line,” Morton said. “We need to recognize their sacrifices and focus on the social, emotional and ethical aspects of their college experience, not simply on grade-point averages and graduation rates.”

, who also is a senior fellow at the University of Wisconsin’s Center for Ethics and ������Ƶ, has worked at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, City College of New York and Swarthmore College. She has a doctor of philosophy degree from Stanford University and has received several awards, including the American Philosophical Association’s Scheffler Prize.

“By focusing on the dilemmas first-generation and low-income students can face when pursuing a degree, Morton shed light on an important but often neglected issue,” said Jeff Valentine, education award director. “She also offers strategies that colleges, faculty and students themselves can use to navigate these challenges.”

Recipients of next year’s are being named Dec. 5-9 pending formal approval by trustees. The annual, $100,000 prizes also honor seminal ideas in music, world order, psychology and religion. Winners will visit Louisville in the spring to accept their awards and give free talks on their winning ideas.

In the 50 years since its creation, the Pell Grant has helped more than 80 million students attend college and pursue their dreams. The Pell Grant has increased access to higher education for countless low-income and first-generation students. That access has helped close a massive opportunity gap – a bachelor’s degree holder earns a median of , which is about 75% more than if they had only a high school diploma.

At the University of Louisville, the opportunity gap has been closing for the past several years thanks to a dedicated focus on supporting underrepresented and at-risk students, including those who receive a Pell Grant. UofL’s six-year graduation rate has improved by 8% over the past six years, for instance, marking the highest rate in university history.

Geoff Bailey, executive director of the REACH program, believes UofL is among few that has made such material strides.

Part of this success comes from our vast ecosystem of programs and resources provided for students to help them navigate their educational journey. This includes REACH, which provides peer tutoring, academic coaching, seminars, intervention courses, financial and academic workshops and more. There is also the Student Success Center, which REACH partners with frequently. It consists of student success coordinators, the First Year Experience office, exploratory advising and first-gen programming.

Additionally, last year UofL launched the Cardinal Commitment Grant, a last-dollar scholarship that pays for the remainder of a student’s tuition after they have received and applied for federal and state grants and additional institutional aid. Students must be eligible for a Pell Grant to take advantage of this new program. 

Leveraging data to identify students most in need of support 

Another way UofL differentiates itself is by having the resources in place to dive deeply into metrics and understand what programs are working. For instance, REACH has the ability to pull data sets to examine how students from certain cohorts – such as first-generation or Pell Grant-eligible – are faring when they use its services compared to those who do not. 

“This allows us to make sure our students are performing well and retained. It’s pretty rare to have this sort of staffing and political support. I can think of maybe four other schools that have this type of support,” Bailey said. “We want to make sure our most vulnerable populations are receiving support so they can take advantage of our resources. We know there is a correlation between our deep dives and graduation rates.”

Having the resources in place also allows REACH to target students who may need the most help getting through their academic careers.

“For the students who are not using us and who have below a 3.0 grade point average, this allows us to get into the weeds with them, message with their advisers and follow up. We make sure we’re bending over backwards with a support message because we are seeing that Pell Grant recipients who use our services are going to thrive and do better than those who don’t,” Bailey said.

To get to that point, Bailey and his staff have to find out why a student may not be leveraging these resources. There are three primary reasons – they’re thriving and don’t need the help; they prefer to figure things out on their own and don’t want to come in; or they have jobs and are simply too busy.

“The third one is the one that scares me because they can’t carve out more time to get more help and we can’t move the needle so easily on those students,” Bailey said.

At a high level, tutoring services are what make the most difference for students who are most at risk of dropping out, but there are additional services they can receive during their time here. UofL’s student-facing teams also work to make sure these services run tandem with students’ courses, so they can get support outside of class, apply knowledge beyond class and develop better habits overall. Bailey said it’s critical that all of these services and resources are top-of-mind for students and their parents.

“When students take tours, even if they’ve not yet applied, they’re hearing about our services and support. They end their campus tours at the Belknap Academic Building, where they learn about critical support services offered by the Student Success Center and REACH. Advisers are reminding them constantly of the services we have,” he said. “We wrap around and reinforce the key areas that students need to pay attention to as they transition to college. Without that, we’d be like any other school.

“Our ability to forge campus partnerships is what makes an impact and where we distinguish ourselves. It’s woven into our institution that everyone has a role in student success.”

Why it’s important to prioritize Pell Grant students

Zooming out a bit, it’s important to understand the impact the Pell Grant has, and has had for the past 50 years. The biggest barrier to obtaining a college degree is funding.

Kentucky has one of the , at 16.3%. , only about one-fourth of Kentuckians have a bachelor’s degree or higher.

Thirty-four percent of undergraduate , and 51% of funds go to students whose families earn less than $20,000 a year. In Kentucky, nearly 94,000 students are Pell Grant recipients, averaging about $4,000 a year.

“Economically, a good portion of our state is depressed. If we’re going to move the needle, a college education is the great equalizer. We play a critical role in helping to break the cycle of poverty,” Bailey said. “The Pell Grant fosters opportunities those students wouldn’t otherwise have and we’re not just issuing money and saying, ‘good luck.’ We’re focused on being stewards and helping to change lives.”

UofL’s work is hardly done. The institution will continue to target Pell Grant-eligible students as part of its overall priority to increase access to higher education. For example, the 2022-23 budget allows for a 0.0% tuition increase for undergraduate students, as well as the continued development of the Cardinal Commitment financial aid program.

NCLCA Award

For its work, REACH was recently awarded the National College Learning Center Association President’s Outstanding Learning Award for Specialized Populations. UofL was the only four-year institution to be recognized this year.