Clever campaigns create awareness. But strong systems create results.
This is especially true in higher education, where statewide campaigns have sparked renewed interest among adults in community colleges. Interest doesn’t always convert to enrollment, though, and even then, enrollment is just the first step toward graduation.
As states push toward Lumina Foundation’s 2040 goal of helping 75 percent of working‑age adults earn a degree or credential of value that leads to economic prosperity, we need more than short‑term tactics. Instead, we need durable systems that bring adults in, support them throughout their educational journey, and remove barriers that have historically left them behind. More than 43 million Americans have some college but no credential, having stopped out of school before finishing.
Redesign requires a fresh mindset. Instead of asking, “How do we drive a surge this fall?” we need to ask, “How do we design statewide enrollment systems where adult enrollment is expected, not the exception?”
This new mindset means aligning policies, practices, data, technology, and community partnerships around adult learners. It means building infrastructures that respond to real-time data. It means ensuring that when an adult expresses interest, through a digital click or visiting campus, there is a coordinated follow-up of guidance and support that carries them from curiosity to enrollment.
System-building means creating a cohesive approach for how states and colleges work together so an adult’s journey from interest to enrollment (and ultimately completion) is clear, supported, personalized, and seamless. It requires digital infrastructure that reduces confusion, brand environments that build trust, and coordinated messaging that connects the value of credentials to good jobs. And it requires adult learner engagement efforts to shift from ad-hoc marketing to long-term operational muscle.
Three states lead the way
Lumina is proud to support states that are modeling what sustainable adult enrollment engines look like. Michigan, Missouri, and Alabama all show how system-building can come to life.
- Creating welcoming environments for adults in Michigan. The state is investing in campus environments and brand identity to make its colleges places where adults feel they belong. By supporting community colleges in redesigning signage and “adult-friendly zones,” Michigan is tackling a barrier often overlooked: adults don’t persist in spaces that feel confusing or irrelevant. The state’s strategy elevates belonging as a core enrollment driver—turning campuses into clearer, more navigable, more welcoming systems for the adults they hope to serve.
- Strengthening digital navigation and reengagement in Missouri. The Missouri Reconnect initiative illustrates what happens when states leverage digital infrastructure to drive enrollment. By developing a statewide microsite, improving institutional web pages, and supporting colleges in adopting adult-centered digital tools, Missouri is building a consistent pathway from outreach to action. Adults don’t just see an ad; they experience a coherent digital system guiding them from interest to enrollment.
- Automating and simplifying adult enrollment in Alabama. Alabama is taking a bold step toward a fully integrated, user-centered digital ecosystem. Through automated direct admissions, personalized pathways, and mobile-first redesigns, the state is reducing the pressures that kept more than 380,000 adults with some college but no degree from re-enrolling. Alabama’s approach shows how states can use technology to remove barriers without eliminating human support, making enrollment more predictable rather than daunting.
Across Michigan, Missouri, and Alabama, the mission is the same. These states are redesigning the enrollment journey, digitally, structurally, and culturally, so adults can move seamlessly and quickly from awareness to action.
For states serious about hitting our nation’s 75 percent achievement goal by helping adults learn and earn, this is the blueprint. It’s not about bigger campaigns. It’s about creating stronger systems that fuel better lives.
[Mary Laphen Pope is the strategy officer for participation at Lumina Foundation, which works to help all Americans continue to learn and train beyond high school. Before joining Lumina, she worked at the Tennessee Higher Education Commission as director of Navigate Reconnect, a statewide initiative that supports older students and returning adults. She earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Gettysburg College and a master’s in higher education administration from Vanderbilt University.]