UNITED FOR COLLEGE SUCCESS
WHO WE ARE
United for College Success (UFCS) builds on the ideology that secondary education institutions should be accountable for the success of their students beyond high school. As a direct result of UFCS efforts, bold actions have led to the development of proven and replicable support programs and a large-scale alumni tracking system. UFCS uses research and real-time data as a critical piece of this vision to enable data-driven insights, elicit solution-driven conversations, and improve student experience through college.
OUR DATA
In 2020, based on 11 Texas districts out of 400, we tracked over 100,000 students. The data we collected is as follows.
Total matriculation rates for all 2012-2020 graduating cohorts is 79%.
Year 1 to year 2 persistence rate for 2012-2020 cohorts is 78%.
As of 2020, 49% of the 2012 cohort graduated college (6 year completion).
COLLEGE COMPLETION
UFCS/GRADify’s approach to college completion is highly systemic. We recognize that closing the gap between college enrollment and college completion begins with a PK-16 pipeline framework.
The road to college persistence and completion begins in Pre-Kindergarten and ends when an individual earns a degree or credential that leads to a choice-filled life.
GETTING OUR STUDENTS TO & THROUGH COLLEGE
OUR Team

Yvonne Eype is a result-driven Education Director experienced in developing and advancing college and career policies and practices. Under her leadership, UFCS/GRADify has onboarded and developed strong statewide teams of 25+ and increased staff performance by 20%. She is also the Director of Special Projects for GRADegy Go, an education innovation company working with the community to provide solutions technology for the hardest to bridge challenges. Prior to her current roles, she served at Lamar Consolidated High School as Assistant Principal, Program Director, and Teacher.

Jay is a creativity and innovation focused technology leader, with years of experience managing and driving UFCS/GRADify ‘s Technology vision. He has helped UFCS/GRADify grow it coalition size while helping UFCS/GRADify transition. UFCS/GRADify have pivoted from just a think tank of best practices into developing technologies to implements those practices at scale. He spearheads a growing development team in bringing the GRADegy app into the hands of students and institution leadership. Prior to UFCS he was a teacher, department chair, technology implementation/training specialist and a district curriculum writer.

Evelyn Escobedo currently serves as a Partnership Manager and brings to the organization significant experience in business- to-business leaderships, with a concentration in development, marketing, and client relations. Evelyn started her journey 13 years ago as a HR Executive at Youth About Business. This experience ignited her passion to work with high school students to promote access and success in higher education. She’s been involved with several education nonprofit organizations, including AmeriCorps, City Year, College Summit, and BCFS as an advocate, teacher and mentor.
EDUCATION
…is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”
– NELSON MANDELA
Our community of support
OUR board members










