Going Farther Together: How to More Intentionally Serve College Students Through Collaboration

This blog was co-authored by Excelencia in Education and Student-Ready Strategies.

Colleges and universities have ongoing opportunities to review, revise, and improve efforts to serve their students well. They strengthen these opportunities by collaborating with other institutions and higher education organizations as partners on their journey of transformation. 

In 2024, Excelencia in Education — a national organization that accelerates Latino student success — and Student-Ready Strategies began a partnership supported by the Gates Foundation’s Intermediaries for Scale (IFS) initiative to guide a cohort of institutions in leveraging their institutional policies to more intentionally serve Latino, and all, students. Our collaboration offers a model for other higher education organizations and institutions that seek to partner to improve academic quality and access to excellence.

The Power of Collaboration

While Excelencia and SRS’s collaborative work began months prior, we brought together 10 Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) from across the country in February 2025 for a workshop focused on effective institutional policies to advance Latino student achievement. Excelencia had matched five coach institutions that have earned the Seal of Excelencia — a national certification for institutions that go beyond enrollment to intentionally serve Latino students — with the 10 participating institutions to support them in developing and refining policies aligned with the Seal of Excelencia framework. The Seal framework integrates essential components of transformation — data, practice, and leadership — into a comprehensive institutional strategy to accelerate Latino student success. It represents learning from over 20 years of working with higher education institutions.

From the beginning, both organizations knew that a strong partnership would require clear communication and structured collaboration. We took the time to understand how each of our organizations approaches its work. This was especially important in co-creating our integrated framework, a tool designed to help institutions analyze and refine their policies through the lens of Excelencia’s Seal framework and SRS’s Theory of Change model.

What followed was a deeply collaborative process. Excelencia first provided SRS with a comprehensive overview of the Seal framework and certification process. SRS took that new understanding and integrated it into its change management approach while considering evidence-based practices for serving Latino, and all, students. Excelencia then reviewed the draft, contributing to dynamic discussions that refined and strengthened the integrated framework.

The Integrated Framework

The result of our combined efforts? An integrated framework that directly supports institutions in integrating student-serving policies into their long-term strategies — with the potential to impact the 262,161 students that the 10 participating institutions and five coach institutions serve.

At its core, the integrated framework provides institutions with a structured way to assess their policies and intentionally align them with evidence-based practices for serving Latino students — and ultimately, all students. This integration elevates institutional policy as a key factor in implementing institutional change as institutions become places where Latino, and all, students thrive. 

Lessons From the Field

This partnership was not only about dividing the work — it was about common cause, trust, responsibility, and mutual respect. The expertise, collegiality, organization, and motivation that both organizations fostered took the labor out of the work. With these qualities in place, we were able to establish and execute on our shared vision.

This experience reinforced our mutual belief that collaboration is fundamental to achieving a greater impact, be it in higher education or beyond. When we work together, we can accomplish far more than we can individually.

As we consider future collaborations, we offer the following advice to ensure lasting, impactful partnerships: 

• Discuss partnership goals and values in advance

• Establish clear roles and responsibilities

• Create intentional space for building trust and relationships 

• Maintain open, two-way communication

• Celebrate wins and acknowledge contributions 

• Schedule regular check-in meetings to stay on task 

• Allow ample time for each party to review and provide feedback on deliverables

Looking Ahead

Through collaboration and continual communication, higher education institutions and organizations have the opportunity to leverage shared knowledge, resources, and values to drive meaningful change. Excelencia and SRS look forward to refining our approach as we continue this transformative work within our community of common cause, and we invite others to apply the lessons we have learned to amplify their collective impact.