New RISE Initiative Empowers First-Gen Students Set to launch this fall, RISE will support first-generation students and their families in navigating a successful college experience.
By
Colette Greenstein
June 7, 2023
Image by Dave Green
Berklee is excited to announce RISE (Reaching Independence through Support and Engagement), a new initiative dedicated to supporting and empowering first-generation students and their families in navigating a successful college experience. Beginning in fall 2023, RISE aims to enhance the student experience through social networks, academic support, financial education, and parent and family engagement, creating a holistic approach to education.
We are excited to launch RISE and believe it greatly assists our first-generation artist-scholars, said Scott Trach, associate dean of student success programs. As a first-generation college student and Berklee alumnus, I understand how navigating higher education structures can be challenging. We have designed RISE to anticipate these challenges and assist students and families as they plan for and experience their first year at Berklee.
Under Trachs supervision, Student Success Programming has spent years developing the guiding principles for the RISE program and establishing opportunities to measure the success of first-generation students using institutional metrics. They recently found that over 16 percent of Berklees undergraduate population can be identified as first-generation based on their parent or guardians level of degree attainment. Berklee defines first-generation as any student whose parent(s) or guardian(s) did not complete a bachelor's degree, and/or the student has no current contact with their parent(s) or guardian(s), regardless of degree completion.
It is our hope that through RISE students will gain the knowledge and comfort to navigate the often confusing waters of higher education with increased confidence, and that parents and families will have a stronger sense of connection to their students college experiences, said Kera Murphy-Perron, director of student success programming.
Drawing from research and best practices, Murphy-Perron and her team found that first-generation students face unique challenges, including greater financial need, lower rates of degree attainment within 10 years, and less engagement with campus support services compared to their continuing-generation peers. We wanted to address these issues, but not from a deficit perspective, said Murphy-Perron.
At its core, RISE aims to further the three key priorities of Berklee's Thrive strategic direction: enabling students to graduate at higher rates and with less debt; supporting students to have a high-quality, engaging experience; and preparing students for purposeful, successful, and sustainable careers.
Nationally, first-generation college students and families are a growing population within our post-secondary communities, and this should be celebrated, said Christopher Kandus-Fisher, Ed.D., vice president of Berklees Student Success Division. I am overjoyed to be part of this important work at Berklee, and to continue to offer direct care and support services to ensure that our first-generation students are successful in achieving their academic and personal goals.
In May 2023, the Center for First-Generation Student Success, an initiative of NASPA and the Suder Foundation, announced that Berklee was accepted to the First Scholars Network for 2023-2024. According to the center, Berklee displayed a demonstrated commitment to improving experiences and advancing success for first-generation college students.
We are extremely honored to be selected as a First Scholars Network member by the Center for First-Generation Student Success, said Murphy-Perron. This selection is a confirmation of the college's strong dedication to supporting first-generation students and their families.
Related Categories
News
Most Popular
Illustration by Dana Smith
Music Licensing 101: How to Sync Your Music Learn how to create syncable music, stand out to music supervisors, and negotiate sync deals with these tips and insights from music licensing experts.
Latest
A spread from the spring/summer 2022 issue of Berklee Today
Images by Brian Guido/Design by Patrick Mitchell
Berklee Today Wins Bronze CASE Awards The awards recognized the magazines high-art design and improved redesign.
Rub n Segovia Cobo
Student Spotlight: Rub n Segovia Cobo The Berklee Valencia graduate student talks about expanding his production skills, empowering artists to express their ideas, and the release of his first studio album, Plastic Boy.
Image courtesy of Bahar Badieitar
Student Spotlight: Bahar Badieitabar The composition and performance major talks about her journey to Berklee from Iran, composing on the oud, and how she finds inspiration in the traditional and folkloric music of her home country.
Read All
Subscribe The latest sounds, stories, and ideas, sent to your inbox weekly.
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
New RISE Initiative Empowers First-Gen Students Set to launch this fall, RISE will support first-generation students and their families in navigating a successful college experience.
