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A-HEC: Another thing that Walden is known for is its success in reaching and educating a diverse student body. According to a recent survey by Diverse: Issues in Higher Education, Walden is a top producer of master’s and doctoral minority graduates. To what do you attribute this success?
PP: For 35 years, we’ve been creating opportunities for people who for a variety of reasons, have been underserved in the higher education community. And that certainly includes minorities. Also, our admissions policies speak to a broad access mission and our promotional activities have always marketed into the professions so we’ve always been able to speak to individuals who wanted to make a difference and were perhaps themselves denied access to the system. This has always been a hallmark of Walden. We’ve always been really attractive to people in underrepresented groups and we’re extremely proud of that. It’s historical momentum of the institution and I think in the early days, there was not that intentionality. It was just what happens when you reach out with a broad access mission and you reach out with programs that speak to individuals with programs that other types of institutions don’t provide.
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