From Campus to Career: Advancing Career-Connected High Impact Practices

Lumina Foundation is committed to creating a post-high school learning environment that’s accessible, lifelong, and prepares everyone for a global future. To realize this vision, Lumina works to ensure that, by 2040, 75 percent of adults in the U.S. labor force will have a college degree or other credential of value leading to economic prosperity. Central to this vision is scaling career-connected high-impact practices (HIPs) in higher education—experiences like internships, undergraduate research, study abroad, service learning, and capstone projects that bridge academic learning with real-world workforce preparation.

HIPs consistently and effectively promote student engagement, deep learning, and degree completion. When intentionally aligned with career pathways, these experiences further support students’ readiness for the workforce, help close gaps in student outcomes, and strengthen connections between academic learning and labor market needs.

Initially introduced as an “umbrella” concept to capture a vision for next-generation teaching and learning, HIPs quickly gained traction and became widely adopted across higher education. However, HIPs were often reduced to checklists rather than deeply integrated curricular programs and pathways.

Today, the field is undergoing a critical shift. We now understand that simply offering HIPs is not enough. Success depends not just on their presence, but on how well they are implemented and who has access to them. To truly fulfill their promise, HIPs must be delivered with intentionality, integrated into students’ academic and career pathways, and designed to ensure participation and meaningful outcomes for all learners—especially Black, Hispanic, Latino, and Native American students, as well as students from low-income families.

This new era of HIPs calls for innovation, alignment, and scale to move beyond checked boxes to transform the undergraduate experience in inclusive, career-connected ways.

Lumina Foundation is seeking letters of interest for a grant opportunity for up to 15 institutions to scale career-connected HIPs on their campuses. Applicants must seek to pursue ambitious and innovative HIPs strategies, but the benefits extend far beyond the direct funding to support this work, including:

• An opportunity to shape national practice in career-connected HIPs among exemplar institutions from across the U.S.;
• Participation in a learning community of peer institutions facilitated by intermediaries such as the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU), ¡Excelencia in Education!, and the Center for Innovation in Postsecondary Education (CIPE) at the University of South Alabama;
• Tailored technical assistant provided by national experts to support the success of campus implementation;
• And direct funding ranging from $80,000 to $100,000 for each grantee.

This request for information will gauge initial institutional interest, readiness, and commitment to scaling career-connected HIPs. We are seeking brief responses from bachelor’s degree-granting colleges and universities that have demonstrated foundational progress in implementing HIPs and are well-positioned to better align them to the skills and competencies employers need and want.

We seek to ensure that experiences like studying abroad provide clear, transparent outcomes that prepare students for the workforce. Additionally, we welcome submissions from institutions that have codified student employment or work-study programs as HIPs.

After reviewing responses, we will invite a subset of institutions to submit a full proposal. (Timeline provided below.)

Only institutions that meet the following criteria will be considered:

• Accredited, bachelor’s degree-granting colleges or universities in the United States (bachelor’s degree granting community colleges are not eligible for this grant opportunity).
• Demonstrated commitment to intentionally embed career preparation into curricular or co-curricular experiences.
• Demonstrated experience in implementing and assessing multiple HIPs (beyond isolated programs or majors).
• Committed to ensuring access, participation, and outcomes across student populations.

Priority consideration will be given to the following:

• American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) member institutions
• Seal of Excelencia Certified institutions
• Public or private HBCUs

Institutions will be asked to submit an initial letter of interest by replying to the following prompts:

• Explain how career-connected HIPs align with your institution’s mission, strategic plan, and/or goals for workforce readiness, and student success.
• Briefly describe the campus infrastructure for implementing career-connected high-impact practices (e.g., professional development, cross-campus partnerships, data collection and utilization, employer engagement, technology, etc.).
• Provide a brief summary that describes how grant funding could support further innovation and scaling of career-connected HIPs at your institution.

All applications must be submitted via Lumina’s Submittable portal.  Responses must be submitted by Oct. 24, 2025.

The initial application/letter of interest responses must be submitted by Oct. 24, 2025.

Next steps: A select subset of institutions will be invited to submit a full proposal on Nov. 3, 2025, with a deadline for submitting the full proposal by Nov. 21, 2025. We will notify grant recipients by Dec. 17, 2025.

For questions, please email CCHIPS@luminafoundation.org.