Growing Inland Achievement (GIA), the Inland Empire’s regional coordinating intermediary for cradle-to-career attainment and economic mobility, has received a new grant from the Gates Foundation to strengthen regional infrastructure supporting Purposeful Pathways across Riverside and San Bernardino counties. 

The multi-year investment will support coordinated efforts to improve high-quality advising, expand dual enrollment opportunities, strengthen career-connected learning, and elevate student voice across two sub-regions of the Inland Empire. 

The work aligns with a shared vision that all students should graduate from high school with purpose, a sense of belonging, and clear momentum toward postsecondary education and family-sustaining careers. 

“Sustained progress on creating purposeful pathways requires schools, colleges, employers, and community organizations working together around a shared vision,” said Dr. Ashish K. Vaidya, President and CEO of Growing Inland Achievement. “This investment strengthens the regional partnerships and infrastructure needed to better connect students with opportunities, remove barriers between systems, and help more Inland Empire residents achieve their educational and career goals.” 

Why This Work Matters 

Across the Inland Empire, high schools, colleges, and workforce partners are expanding access to career academies, dual enrollment, Guided Pathways, and work-based learning. However, many of these efforts operate within individual institutions rather than as part of a coordinated regional system. 

Students often navigate inconsistent advising systems and unclear transitions between high school, community college, university, and career. As a result, the region continues to see gaps in college enrollment, persistence, and completion. 

GIA’s role is to help align these efforts across systems so that students experience education as a connected pathway rather than a series of disconnected steps. 

What the Grant Will Support 

This grant is aligned with two additional Gates grants awarded to OneFuture Coachella Valley and the San Bernardino Community College District.  Each will focus on strengthening advising systems, expanding access to accelerated coursework, and building career-connected learning opportunities. 

“Students deserve pathways that are clear, connected, and built around their goals,” said Sheila Thornton, President and CEO of OneFuture Coachella Valley. “This investment allows us to ensure that more students in the Coachella Valley graduate with the knowledge, confidence, and support they need to pursue postsecondary education and meaningful careers. Our shared work across the region will create stronger systems that help every student succeed.” 

GIA will serve as the regional coordinating intermediary, advancing this work through: 

• Convening: GIA will bring together K–12 districts, colleges, workforce partners, and community organizations to align and share learnings, promising practices, and strategies for advising, dual enrollment, and career-connected learning. 

• Research and Data: GIA will collaborate with regional and state data partners to track key proof points, facilitate shared interpretation of data, and support continuous improvement across implementation sites. 

• Elevating Student Voice: GIA will host student convenings and structured feedback sessions to ensure that regional strategies reflect the lived experiences of students navigating pathway systems. 

The goal is to strengthen the regional infrastructure necessary to scale what works and support sustained collaboration across institutions. 

Advancing the Inland Empire’s 70 Percent Attainment Goal 

This work contributes to the Inland Empire’s shared goal of 70 percent of working-age adults holding a postsecondary degree or credential of value. Progress toward this goal depends on strengthening key cradle-to-career milestones, including early academic readiness, high school A–G completion, dual enrollment access, postsecondary enrollment and persistence, and successful transitions into careers. 

“Strong regional partnerships are essential to helping students move successfully from high school to college and into the workforce,” said Dr. Diana Z. Rodriguez, Chancellor of the San Bernardino Community College District. “This investment allows us to deepen collaboration with our K-12, higher education, and community partners to strengthen advising, expand access, and build pathways that prepare students for long-term success.” 

By building stronger regional alignment around advising, accelerating coursework, and career-connected learning, this initiative supports long-term economic mobility for students and families across the Inland Empire. 

A Regional Approach to Systems Change 

As a regional intermediary, GIA facilitates systemwide collaboration that individual institutions cannot achieve alone. Through shared measurement, cross-sector convening, and coordinated strategy, GIA helps reduce duplication, strengthen alignment, and convert promising local efforts into scalable regional solutions. 

Over the next three years, this investment will help build durable regional capacity so that pathway strategies developed in sub-regions can inform broader implementation across the Inland Empire. 

*This project is funded by the Gates Foundation. The findings and conclusions contained within are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the positions or policies of the Gates Foundation.