Changing Lives Through Opportunity: Meet the 2026 Liaison IMPACT Grant Recipients

Effective college student support often starts with a simple question.

What stands between a student and their success?

For some, it's food insecurity. For others, it's the inability to afford basic academic supplies. And for many neurodivergent students, it's navigating a college environment that wasn't designed with their needs in mind.

These challenges may look different, but they share a common outcome: Barriers that can make it harder for students to thrive, persist, and reach graduation.

Each year, the Liaison IMPACT Grant recognizes institutions working to remove those barriers through creative, student-centered solutions. Funded by the generosity of Liaison employees and a company match donation, the grant supports initiatives that expand access, strengthen belonging, and help more students achieve their educational goals.

At experience: LIAISON | Baltimore, we celebrated three institutions whose projects exemplify the power of meeting students where they are and providing the support they need to succeed.

At Laguna College of Art and Design (LCAD), leaders recognized that food insecurity was affecting a significant portion of their student population, reportedly 78%.

With support from the Liaison IMPACT Grant, LCAD will expand campus food access through a secure, self-service pantry available to students around the clock. The initiative will provide fresh produce, nonperishable food items, and basic hygiene products, ensuring that students can access essential resources when they need them.

For aspiring artists and designers balancing demanding coursework, employment, and financial challenges, reliable access to basic necessities can make a profound difference. By reducing that burden, the college aims to create an environment where students can focus more fully on their education, creativity, and future careers.

The obstacles that affect student success are not always obvious.

At Georgia Southern University, staff noticed that some students were arriving to class without access to everyday academic necessities. While the institution already offered resources such as food pantries, a different need had emerged: Affordable access to the supplies required for learning.

The Student Success Supply Locker was created to fill that gap.

In its first year, the initiative served more than 500 students across multiple campuses and distributed over 2,000 essential items, including notebooks, calculators, pens, and other academic supplies.

The IMPACT Grant will enable Georgia Southern to expand the program, fully stock additional lockers, and strengthen its ability to measure long-term outcomes related to student retention, progression, graduation, and student engagement.

For students with ADHD, autism, dyslexia, and other learning differences, success in higher education often requires support that goes beyond traditional academic services.

Franklin Pierce University's ASCEND Program was developed to meet that need.

Launched as a pilot initiative, ASCEND provides personalized coaching, executive functioning support, self-advocacy development, and tailored learning strategies designed to help neurodivergent learners build confidence and independence.

One student participant’s experience perfectly illustrates the program’s impact. After arriving on campus struggling academically and socially during her first semester, she engaged fully with ASCEND's coaching framework. Through structured support, goal-setting, and executive functioning development, she improved from a 1.6 GPA in the fall to a 3.61 GPA in the spring.

With funding from the IMPACT Grant, Franklin Pierce University will double the program's capacity, expand professional development for student success coaches, and formalize a curriculum focused on executive functioning, self-advocacy, and social engagement.

The projects recognized this year differ in their approach, but they share a common purpose: Removing obstacles that can stand between students and opportunity.

As we celebrated these institutions in Baltimore, we were reminded that student success is built not only through policy and strategy, but through everyday acts of service, care, and leadership.

To the 2026 IMPACT Grant recipients—thank you for the work you're doing to create more accessible, supportive, and equitable educational experiences for your students. We look forward to seeing the impact these programs will make in the years ahead.