Believe it: 10 text over the summer can increase college enrollment by 10%. A joint effort between digital creative agency Huge, non-profit Civic Nation & the White House’s Office of Public Engagement, UP NEXT is a texting program designed to provide students with guidance on college. Today, you’ll hear from a professor whose research on texting inspired the Up Next program as well as a student who used Up Next during her senior year.

The Reach Higher initiative is the First Lady's effort to inspire every student in America to take charge of their future by completing their education past high school, whether at a professional training program, a community college, or a four-year college or university.

In our conversation with Reach Higher's Exec. Director Eric Waldo, Better Make Room's Don Yu  & college student Darius Wesley, we talk about the inspiration behind the program, the impact that school counselors and mentors can have, and what advice they would give high school students today. 

In our final episode of Season 2, we talk to Mary Daly, “the people’s economist,” about what roles economic mobility and economic inequality play in education. Also in the episode: Jody’s own college story and reflecting on this season with our producer, Ellen Chan.

In our interview with Isabel Sawhill and Beth Akers, two Research Fellows from the Brookings Institution, we talk about college affordability, why college debt is usually worth it (though it’s not without risks), and what advice they would give to a room full of high school students.

In our interview with Susan Dynarski, a professor at the University of Michigan and writer for the New York Times’ Upshot column, she dispels commonly held myths about college debt and explains how she stays innovative with her research.

In our conversation with economist Jaison Abel, he talks about the “well-educated barista” and how new grads fare in the job market.

In our conversation with Maddy Maxey, the Co-Founder and President of The Crated, she talks about how she came up with her company’s name, her experience as a Thiel Fellow, and why the ah-ha moment is a myth.

We’re taking a quick break from “Does College Matter?” this week. We’ll be back next week with the founder of The Crated, Maddy Maxey.

In this interview, guest-host Vanessa Ishii (from Stitcher Radio) and Matt Lieber (co-founder of Gimlet Media) explore the world of storytelling, the power of audio, and what role podcasts will play in the future.

In our conversation with Teuila Hanson, SVP of HR, Diversity and Inclusion at the San Francisco Fed, she talks about what’s at stake in conversations about diversity and why we need to be honest about our own biases.

In our conversation with Kathleen Mullaney, Udacity’s VP of Careers, she talks about Udacity’s mission, her mentors, and what advice she would give to career switchers and

In our interview with Steve Davee, Maker Ed's Chief Maker Educator, we talk about the power of play, what inspires people to learn, and how he thinks the modern maker movement can impact college. 

In our interview with Tyler Kingkade, Senior Editor and Reporter at Huffington Post College, we ask him about hot topics on campus and whether he thinks college still matters. 

Scholar Match is a non-profit, founded by author Dave Eggers. Designed to guide low-income students through the college application process, they continue to be a resource to students after high school, steering them through college and on toward a career. In our interview with the staff and students from Scholar Match, we talk about what problems they're trying to solve and what kind of impact Scholar Match has on their students' lives. 

In our conversation with the CEO of Immudicon, Riley Ennis, he talks about what life as Thiel Fellow was like, where the idea for Immudicon came from, and what advice he gives people, trying to find their passion.  

In our conversation with the CEO of Six Foods, Rose Wang, she talks about the inspiration behind Six Foods, how she learned to push past barriers, and why eating cricket chips could help improve the environment. 

In our conversation with Adrian Rodriguez, SVP of Communications & Community Engagement at the SF Fed, he talks about his experiences growing up in the small barrio town of La Puente, being a first generation college student, and how his parents have inspired him throughout his life.

In our conversation with Sarah Green Carmichael, the host of Harvard Business Review's Ideacast, we talk about changing the world through management, why she joined HBR, and how she stays innovative.

In our conversation with Khan Academy’s charismatic VP of Learner Strategy & Operations, Elizabeth Slavitt, we got a behind-the-scenes look at Khan Academy’s creative process and ask Elizabeth what inspired her to join the team and how she stays innovative.

University of the People is the world’s first non-profit, tuition-free, accredited online university. In our interview with UoPeople's President, Shai Reshef, we talk about the inspiration behind the online four-year college, what it takes to run the school, and what kind of advice he has for future entrepreneurs. 

Jeremy Rossman has co-founded a school that’s breaking all the rules. It’s exclusively focused on Computer Science and it’s called Make School - partly because you can’t get accepted if you haven’t made anything and partly because the purpose of the school is to teach students how to make things like mobile apps. Plus, there’s no traditional tuition and no student debt. We’re going to find out why the Make School is so different, learn about the problems it’s trying to solve, and discover how to run a successful school with no tuition and no student debt.

The charismatic CEO of Schoology talks about how he stays innovative and what advice he would give to first-time entrepreneurs. 

In our interview with the CEO of Remind, Brett Kopf, we ask him about the inspiration behind Remind, his framework for starting a company from scratch, and the impact that an individual teacher has had on his whole life.