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 to fund 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.;
• 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.

Only institutions that meet the following criteria will be considered:

• Accredited, bachelor’s degree-granting colleges or universities in the United States and its territories (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

The peer learning and collaborations amongst funded institutions will be facilitated by Excelencia in Education, American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU), and Center for Innovation in Postsecondary Education (CIPE).

Applications for this grant opportunity are now closed.

The initial application/letter of interest responses closed on Oct. 24, 2025.

Next steps: A select subset of institutions were invited to submit a full proposal on Nov. 3, 2025, with a deadline for submitting the full proposal by Nov. 21, 2025. Grantees will be announced in March 2026.

For questions, please email CCHIPS@luminafoundation.org.