Backed by The Heinz Endowments, nine southwestern Pennsylvania colleges and universities are collaborating with InsideTrack and Ithaka S+R to help working adults return to college through personalized coaching and up to $5,000 in financial relief

PITTSBURGH, Nov. 10, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Thousands of working adults across southwestern Pennsylvania who left college without finishing will get personalized outreach, coaching, and financial support to help them re-enroll and complete their degrees through the Keystone Comeback, a new regional initiative led by Ithaka S+R, a nonprofit focused on broadening access to postsecondary education and improving student and workforce outcomes. As part of the initiative, national student success nonprofit InsideTrack will contact stopped-out learners across the region and coach them through re-enrollment and on to their credentials.

Through a network of nine participating colleges and universities, the Keystone Comeback will identify former students with some college but no credential, support them on the path back to re-enrollment, and work with institutions to remove the barriers that have prevented them from returning to complete a degree or certificate.

“Our region’s young adults often face a multitude of barriers and challenges that get in the way of securing the degrees or credentials that can lead to meaningful, good-paying jobs,” said Kathleen Keating, Program Officer for the Heinz Endowments’ Workforce strategy. “We’re honored to work with Keystone Comeback and its partners in addressing those barriers, in building clear pathways to meaningful careers, and investing in the creation of a future in Southwestern Pennsylvania where everyone has the opportunity to prosper and belong.”

More than one million working-age adults across Pennsylvania—and tens of thousands in southwestern Pennsylvania alone—left college before earning a credential, often because of financial pressure or competing work and family demands. The Keystone Comeback is built to re-enroll these former students on a large scale and pair one-on-one success coaching with campus-level changes in policy, including cancellation of eligible past-due balances after students re-enroll and hit program milestones.

Beginning with students who will re-enroll in Spring 2027, the Keystone Comeback aims to help more adults return to college, persist, and complete their credentials. InsideTrack, which has provided one-on-one success coaching to more than 3.6 million students over the past two decades, is serving as the Keystone Comeback’s outreach and coaching partner and will use the same evidence-based coaching model that has driven strong re-enrollment results in similar initiatives elsewhere in the country.

“Behind every stopped-out student is a story—not of failure, but of competing responsibilities,” said Ruth Bauer, president of InsideTrack. “Many are parents juggling childcare, caregivers looking after loved ones, or adults working multiple jobs to earn a steady paycheck, keep food on the table, and provide a better life for their family. They haven’t given up on college; life simply demanded their attention elsewhere. When someone like a coach reaches out to support them on that long journey, believes in their potential, and stays alongside them through the process of coming back, it can change the trajectory of an entire family.”

Participating institutions are Butler County Community College, Carlow University, Chatham University, Community College of Allegheny County, Community College of Beaver County, Duquesne University, Penn State Beaver, Penn State Greater Allegheny, and Point Park University. In the months leading up to the launch, these nine institutions have been working together to identify barriers that keep adults from re-enrolling, improve student support, and develop a coordinated plan for reaching out to their former students.

Returning students will benefit from three coordinated supports: proactive outreach and individualized coaching from InsideTrack; improved re-enrollment processes and student support services at each participating institution; and cancellation of eligible past-due balances up to $5,000 after students re-enroll and meet program milestones. Given the large number of returning students who are also parents, Pittsburgh Scholar House is advising the initiative, drawing on its experience helping single parents earn a college degree while raising their children.

“Colleges have been expected to solve the challenge of adult re-enrollment on their own, even though the obstacles learners face—and many of the strategies that work—are remarkably consistent,” said Martin Kurzweil, managing director of Ithaka S+R, which is coordinating the initiative. “The next chapter of adult learner success will be written through collaboration, not isolation. It depends on institutions sharing data, learning from one another, and building the collective capacity to better identify, engage, and support returning students.”

The Keystone Comeback draws on years of research and technical assistance led by Ithaka S+R on adult learner re-engagement, including the Ohio College Comeback Compact, the Pennsylvania Adult Learner Re-Engagement Community of Practice, and technical assistance partnerships in states including Kentucky and New Jersey. By bringing together higher education institutions, nonprofit partners, and philanthropy, the initiative is designed as a model for regional collaboration that can inform similar efforts elsewhere in Pennsylvania and beyond.

The program is made possible through funding from The Heinz Endowments, the Pittsburgh-based philanthropy committed to expanding workforce development opportunities that lead to family-sustaining wages across the region.

About Ithaka S+R: Ithaka S+R helps the academic and cultural communities serve the public good and navigate economic, demographic, and technological change. An independent research and consulting service, Ithaka S+R provides research and strategic guidance to libraries, publishers, and higher education institutions to help them define and pursue vital missions in the digital age. Ithaka S+R is part of ITHAKA, a not-for-profit organization that also includes JSTOR and Portico. To learn more, visit sr.ithaka.org.

About InsideTrack: InsideTrack delivers the enrollment, retention, completion and career-readiness outcomes that help higher education institutions — and the students they serve — truly thrive. We partner with colleges and universities to bring evidence-based student success coaching to their learners, helping students develop the self-efficacy, motivation, belonging, and resilience to finish their credentials, prepare for meaningful careers, and secure quality jobs. As a mission-driven nonprofit organization, we deploy both direct coaching programs and training for support teams to create scalable, long-term impact. Since 2001, we have supported more than 3.6 million learners across 425+ institutions. InsideTrack is a division of Lemnis, a public charity dedicated to expanding learning for all. Learn more at insidetrack.org.

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SOURCE InsideTrack