S6E8. The Economic Impact of a College Degree w/ Tara Hardison

Despite the rise in scrutiny of bachelor’s degrees, research
shows that having access to college is a key indicator of future
economic and financial success as well as physical and emotional
well-being. 





Studies show that people with bachelor's degrees have 57% more
job opportunities than people with high school diplomas, and 60%
of workers with bachelor’s degrees reported being highly
satisfied at work, while only 38% of workers without college
degrees reported being highly satisfied. 





If a degree can play such a pivotal role in someone’s overall
future success, how can access to college be expanded so that
students can not just get in but thrive while they’re in school
and graduate? Tara Hardison, assistant dean for undergraduate
programs at the David Eccles School of Business, works on that
question every day. 





She joins host Frances Johnson to chat about the real-world
impacts a college degree can have on someone’s life, the ways
Eccles is helping first-generation and low-income students, and
why that support doesn’t end after students have been handed a
degree. 





Eccles Business Buzz is a production of the David Eccles School
of Business and is produced by University FM.



Episode Quotes:




Access critical to business education





[08:32]: Access is so critical for what we do here, and when we
talk about a business education, we've got a large chunk of
business-specific courses, but it's nestled in a broader liberal
arts education, which does a lot for our students in everything
that they'll do. We are teaching them about business fundamentals
and practices in a series of topical areas. Finance, accounting,
operations, right? We've got a series of majors. But the liberal
arts piece is incredibly helpful, too. We absolutely teach
critical thinking in our business education, but they learn these
valuable skills in other aspects of humanities and social
sciences, as well as their business-specific curriculum.





What got Tara into academic advising?





[24:06]: This is a 100 percent why I got into student affairs and
why I started in academic advising. Because when I thought about
what I wanted to be or, like, what I could do and how I could
make an impact, I was like, "Oh, advising. Like that is the
single most important impactful thing." And so I am incredibly
passionate about our students' experiences, and I'm incredibly
passionate also about our staff experiences, right? Because I
don't think we can have good student experiences if we don't have
good staff experiences and faculty experiences, right? We really
think about the ecosystem, not these sort of different groups of
what makes our ecosystem in silos necessarily.





What makes David Eccles Business school
unique? 





[12:48]: I think one of the things that makes us the strongest in
the David Eccles School of Business is our ecosystem, in that it
does not just include staff, faculty, and students; it really is
a much broader ecosystem of our alum and the broader business
community, which is something that makes us unique.



Show Links:

Eccles Basic Needs Initiative 

First Ascent Scholars Program

Opportunity Scholars Program

Tara Hardison | David Eccles School of Business