7-1-1 IMformation

How do newcomers acquire skills and information to adapt to their environments? How might we improve these educational experiences?

America is an immigrant nation with over 900 public community colleges available, and yet, adult immigrant education continues to be limited with high barriers to entry.

How might we use a new immigrant’s existing network to share information about educational opportunities?

How might we take the scholarship process beyond paper applications?

A call center for immigrants to gain access to higher education

Research

America is an immigrant nation with over 900 public community colleges available, and yet, adult immigrant education continues to be limited with high barriers to entry.

Immigration is a reality for millions of people around the world. Life in a new country comes with many challenges: uncertainty, language barriers, resource constraints, and new job markets—just to name a few. How do newcomers acquire skills and information to adapt to their environments? How might we improve these educational experiences?

Interviews with immigrants passionate about education revealed very few people apply for available scholarships because awareness is low. Key insights fell into three major themes:

1. Awareness

2. Economics

3. Access

There are over 1.6M new immigrants in the United States who want a college degree, but cannot afford one and are unaware of the $32M+ scholarships available to them.

There isn’t an up-to-date, searchable database of all available scholarships for immigrants with and without documentation.

At the end of the day, there is money left on the table.

Inspiration

After conducting numerous interviews with a sample population of Los Angeles’s immigrant community, a subset of shared characteristics was pulled to create user personas like Lulu.

Lulu is a 28-year-old house cleaner who takes public transportation. She is not married, has no kids or internet, but has a cell phone to conduct business.

So how might we address issues in awareness, economics, and access for folks like Lulu trying to gain access to higher education?

Ideation

Assuming the connection between new immigrants and scholarship opportunities bridges the issue of economics, let’s tackle the other two major themes by asking the following questions:

Awareness:

How might we use a new immigrant’s existing network to share information about educational opportunities?

• Organize community events in common spaces by using ambassadors to bring people together and disseminate information.

• Leverage SMS system to promote meetings and incentivize people with contests, games, free food

• Inspired by NYC’s 311, create a network to answer questions about education opportunities, scholarships, and educational rights for undocumented immigrants

• Use current students as liaisons for knowledge sharing

Access:

How might we take the scholarship process beyond paper applications?

• Advertise scholarship on radio show and forward list of callers a text to get application started

• Train college admission officers on aid options for new immigrants

• Use public transportation to advertise scholarship opportunities in a credible way

• Advertise on grocery receipts

Solution Design

Taking inspiration from NYC’s 311 network, the adoption of a 711 network could connect immigrants to information and next steps towards achieving higher education.

The user journey begins when Lulu see an advertisement at her local bus stop for information on scholarship opportunities for people like her. She calls the easy to remember phone number, 7-1-1, and is greeted with an initial recording in Spanish, her preferred language.

While she is directed to a representative, Lulu hears a recording reminding her that her privacy is protected and her number will not be kept. She will remain anonymous and can ask any question she has.

Once preliminary questions are fielded, the representative creates an anonymous profile for Lulu. Based on Lulu’s profile, she will use the online database of scholarships to search, drag, and drop options for Lulu.

The list of scholarships will then be packaged and sent anonymously to Lulu, detailing the application process along with access to her profile and critical next steps.

In partnership with colleges, universities, and scholarship providers, the call center will act as an education liaison connecting immigrants to their future.

7-1-1 IMformation. Education information for immigrants.