Title
The Early Years
Year
2006
Story told by
Board Members
One Million Degrees began as the Illinois Education Foundation, formed around a shared recognition among its early leaders. Capable community college students were doing everything right and still being forced to stop.
Among the organization’s founding board members—Dave Scherer, Michael Golden, Rose Lizarraga, Thania Panopoulos, and Suzanne Faber (early board member)—the same pattern kept emerging. Students were enrolling, attending class, and staying committed, yet structural barriers continued to derail their progress.
“We were seeing students who were doing everything they were supposed to do, and it still wasn’t enough”
Michael Golden
The issue was not effort or ability. From the beginning, the board understood that the systems surrounding students were not designed for the realities many of them faced. Financial pressure, caregiving responsibilities, and unstable access to basic resources were not exceptions. They were common conditions.
Rose Lizarraga helped ground those early conversations in values. The work, she emphasized, could not be about correcting students or questioning their potential. It had to start from an honest assessment of the environment students were navigating and a commitment to meet them with dignity.
That clarity shaped the organization’s earliest direction. The question was not how to push students harder, but how to remove the barriers that made persistence so fragile.
At the same time, there was a shared understanding that responding to this need required discipline and long-term thinking. Thania Panopoulos was focused early on building something that could last. The work needed structure, accountability, and a model that could grow without losing its integrity.
For Suzanne Faber, joining the board meant encountering the idea before the details were fully formed. What stood out was not certainty, but purpose.
That purpose showed up in small, practical ways. Suzanne recalls one scholar who repeatedly had to step away from community college, not because of academic difficulty, but because she could not find reliable childcare. The response was direct and human.
“It wasn’t about a lot of money, it was like, let’s help her find some decent daycare so she can continue in school.”
SUZANNE FABER
Moments like that reinforced what the founding board believed they were building. This was not an organization focused narrowly on coursework or credentials. It was a model that recognized students as whole people, with lives that did not pause when classes began.
As the work evolved, the board also recognized that the original name no longer captured the imagination or possibility at the heart of the organization. The shift from Illinois Education Foundation to One Million Degrees marked a defining moment, signaling a broader vision rooted in opportunity and momentum.
Looking back, the founding board does not describe the organization’s longevity as accidental. They describe it as the result of a belief they shared from the beginning: when barriers are addressed instead of worth being questioned, students persist. And when students persist, the impact extends far beyond the classroom.
That belief is where the One Million Degrees story begins.
