Skip to content
ADVERTISEMENT
Sign In
  • Sections
    • News
    • Advice
    • The Review
  • Topics
    • Data
    • Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
    • Finance & Operations
    • International
    • Leadership & Governance
    • Teaching & Learning
    • Scholarship & Research
    • Student Success
    • Technology
    • Transitions
    • The Workplace
  • Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Special Issues
    • Podcast: College Matters from The Chronicle
  • Newsletters
  • Virtual Events
  • Ask Chron
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Professional Development
    • Career Resources
    • Virtual Career Fair
  • More
  • Sections
    • News
    • Advice
    • The Review
  • Topics
    • Data
    • Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
    • Finance & Operations
    • International
    • Leadership & Governance
    • Teaching & Learning
    • Scholarship & Research
    • Student Success
    • Technology
    • Transitions
    • The Workplace
  • Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Special Issues
    • Podcast: College Matters from The Chronicle
  • Newsletters
  • Virtual Events
  • Ask Chron
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Professional Development
    • Career Resources
    • Virtual Career Fair
    Upcoming Events:
    Hands-On Career Preparation
    An AI-Driven Work Force
    Alternative Pathways
Sign In
News

2014 Influence List: Messenger

December 15, 2014
Messenger 1
College Advising Corps

Nicole Hurd

This year saw a number of high-profile efforts to open college doors to more students, and Nicole Hurd seemed to have a hand in all of them.

In January, Ms. Hurd spoke on a panel at a White House summit on the topic. When Bloomberg Philanthropies announced a $10-million commitment to help high-achieving, low-income students, her organization, College Advising Corps, was on its list of partners. And her name appeared in one news article after another about college access.

To continue reading for FREE, please sign in.

Sign In

Or subscribe now to read with unlimited access for as low as $10/month.

Don’t have an account? Sign up now.

A free account provides you access to a limited number of free articles each month, plus newsletters, job postings, salary data, and exclusive store discounts.

Sign Up

Nicole Hurd

This year saw a number of high-profile efforts to open college doors to more students, and Nicole Hurd seemed to have a hand in all of them.

In January, Ms. Hurd spoke on a panel at a White House summit on the topic. When Bloomberg Philanthropies announced a $10-million commitment to help high-achieving, low-income students, her organization, College Advising Corps, was on its list of partners. And her name appeared in one news article after another about college access.

Ms. Hurd, 44, recognizes that this is a special moment. Sometimes, she says, “everything lines up.”

The corps has established itself just as college access has been getting more attention. Ms. Hurd credits that change to the growing body of research showing that access is a serious dilemma and that there are solutions. Her group has also benefited from donors’ heightened interest in proven results, as it makes a point of documenting its successes.

  • The People Who Shaped Higher Education This Year
    These academic newsmakers made a mark—for better or worse—in 2014.

Its mission is simple: Provide disadvantaged students with more of the sort of college advising that students at wealthier schools can take for granted. The group, with an annual budget of $27-million, places recent graduates of its 23 partner colleges into high-need high schools, where they work to create a college-going culture—doing things like making signs for teachers’ doors saying where they went to college and what they studied.

The Bloomberg program works a little differently, using alumni of the school-based program to counsel high-achieving, low-income high-school students throughout the country, with tools like text messages and document sharing.

Ms. Hurd wasn’t always focused on college access. The idea came to her in a parking lot in May 2004, when she was dean of undergraduate research and fellowships at the University of Virginia. Ms. Hurd was reflecting on a meeting she’d attended with local business leaders and staff from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, which was interested in supporting college access.

She was struck by the statistics the foundation’s staff had shared about the heavy caseloads of high-school counselors—today the average counselor has more than 450 students.

Thinking of the top graduates from UVa who competed each year to work for Teach for America or join the Peace Corps, Ms. Hurd wondered, “Why can’t we keep them here to do college advising work?” Ms. Hurd’s boss liked the idea. So did the Cooke foundation, which provided $623,000 for a pilot program that placed 14 recent UVa grads in 2005.

ADVERTISEMENT

Things took off from there. In 2006, the foundation provided $10-million to expand the program, surprising Ms. Hurd. She offered to quit her day job to run the program full time, surprising the foundation. For six years, the corps was “incubated” at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill before becoming a stand-alone nonprofit last year. And the group is having an impact: Seniors who met with an adviser were 23 percent more likely to apply to college than those who didn’t.

Ms. Hurd’s next goal? Ensuring that college access doesn’t just have its moment, but becomes “a permanent issue.”

—Beckie Supiano

We welcome your thoughts and questions about this article. Please email the editors or submit a letter for publication.
Share
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Email
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

More News

Collage of charts
Data
How Faculty Pay and Tenure Can Change Depending on Academic Discipline
Vector illustration of two researcher's hands putting dollar signs into a beaker leaking green liquid.
'Life Support'
As the Nation’s Research-Funding Model Ruptures, Private Money Becomes a Band-Aid
Photo-based illustration of scissors cutting through a flat black and white university building and a landscape bearing the image of a $100 bill.
Budget Troubles
‘Every Revenue Source Is at Risk’: Under Trump, Research Universities Are Cutting Back
Photo-based illustration of the Capitol building dome topping a jar of money.
Budget Bill
Republicans’ Plan to Tax Higher Ed and Slash Funding Advances in Congress

From The Review

Photo-based illustration of the sculpture, The Thinker, interlaced with anotehr image of a robot posed as The Thinker with bits of binary code and red strips weaved in.
The Review | Essay
What I Learned Serving on My University’s AI Committee
By Megan Fritts
Illustration of a Gold Seal sticker embossed with President Trump's face
The Review | Essay
What Trump’s Accreditation Moves Get Right
By Samuel Negus
Illustration of a torn cold seal sticker embossed with President Trump's face
The Review | Essay
The Weaponization of Accreditation
By Greg D. Pillar, Laurie Shanderson

Upcoming Events

Ascendium_06-10-25_Plain.png
Views on College and Alternative Pathways
Coursera_06-17-25_Plain.png
AI and Microcredentials
  • Explore Content
    • Latest News
    • Newsletters
    • Letters
    • Free Reports and Guides
    • Professional Development
    • Virtual Events
    • Chronicle Store
    • Chronicle Intelligence
    • Jobs in Higher Education
    • Post a Job
  • Know The Chronicle
    • About Us
    • Vision, Mission, Values
    • DEI at The Chronicle
    • Write for Us
    • Work at The Chronicle
    • Our Reporting Process
    • Advertise With Us
    • Brand Studio
    • Accessibility Statement
  • Account and Access
    • Manage Your Account
    • Manage Newsletters
    • Individual Subscriptions
    • Group and Institutional Access
    • Subscription & Account FAQ
  • Get Support
    • Contact Us
    • Reprints & Permissions
    • User Agreement
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • California Privacy Policy
    • Do Not Sell My Personal Information
1255 23rd Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20037
© 2025 The Chronicle of Higher Education
The Chronicle of Higher Education is academe’s most trusted resource for independent journalism, career development, and forward-looking intelligence. Our readers lead, teach, learn, and innovate with insights from The Chronicle.
Follow Us
  • twitter
  • instagram
  • youtube
  • facebook
  • linkedin