100 First-Generation College Graduates, $100M Impact

Income inequality

East LA County of Los Angeles (select only if your project has a countywide benefit) City of Los Angeles (select only if your project has a citywide benefit)

Expand existing project, program, or initiative (expanding and continuing ongoing, successful work)

Legacy LA is a grassroots organization with 18 years of experience engaging youth in Boyle Heights and Ramona Gardens. Legacy LA’s Executive Director grew up in Ramona Gardens, is a Legacy LA youth program alum, and earned a bachelor’s degree before returning to serve her community.
From firsthand experience, Legacy LA knows first-generation students face barriers to college. Reducing barriers is crucial for economic opportunity. Compared to a high school diploma, a bachelor’s degree increases net lifetime earnings by an estimated $1 million, but racial equity gaps persist: 25.6% of white adults hold a bachelor’s degree, which is 12% higher than Latinos. (A. Carnevale, “Learning and Earning by Degrees,” Georgetown Univ., 2024.)
In Legacy LA’s service area, (a) 90.4% of residents identify as Latino (vs. 49% countywide); (b) 27.1% have income below poverty (vs. 13.9% countywide); and (c) 14.2% have a bachelor’s degree or higher (vs. 35.6% countywide) (US Census, 2022 5-Yr. ACS, 90033).

Led by a college grad and program alum, Legacy LA will scale up the 100 College Graduates Initiative to increase economic opportunity. The Initiative provides college access, persistence, and completion services for low-income, primarily Latino, first-generation college students from Boyle Heights with a focus on the Ramona Gardens public housing development.
Currently, the Initiative is understaffed with one case manager serving approximately 60 college students at UCLA, Harvard, MIT, UC Merced, San Francisco State, Cal State LA, and other schools. With LA2050 funds, Legacy LA will hire a second case manager and expand to serve 80 college students in 2025-26. Caseloads will be reduced and balanced between the two case managers to increase attention per student.
Using a whole person approach, case managers will work 1:1 with students to develop an education plan each semester; provide mentoring/coaching in person or remotely at least monthly to instill a future orientation, identify strengths and goals, and reduce barriers (ex. – navigating financial aid, identifying tutoring needs); and offer quarterly life skills workshops on topics such as financial literacy, campus resources, and leadership.
Parent involvement is important and includes workshops on topics such as financial aid. Mothers are encouraged to join Mujeres Poderosas, a women’s leadership skill-building group led by Legacy LA for parents and community members, which strengthens the support network for youth.

Legacy LA (a past LA2050 winner) can be a model of true investment in the community. Legacy LA will scale up the successful 100 College Graduates Initiative from 60 to 80 students; 100% will earn college credits and/or degrees by October 2026. Legacy LA will advance toward its big goal of helping 100 first-generation college students to earn degrees, increasing lifetime earnings by $1M each (100 college grads, $100M impact). This replicable model will boost economic opportunity and address racial equity gaps. College grads will serve as role models and use leadership skills to benefit Ramona Gardens and the LA region (ex. - Legacy LA program alumni Araceli Rodriguez and Eddie Licon returned post-college to serve the community). The entire LA region will benefit: college graduates contribute more to tax revenue; vote, volunteer, and donate more; and are 3.5 times less likely to be impoverished compared to high school completers. (Assoc. of Public & Land Grant Universities, aplu.org).