PASSWORDMANAGEMENT
A mother working two jobs watches her son become the first in the family to earn a degree. A student from an underserved community becomes a teacher, engineer, or entrepreneur -- breaking cycles and building legacies. This is social mobility.
At the CSU National Center for Social Mobility at Cal State San Marcos, we're building a new blueprint for higher education. One where every student, regardless of their background, has the opportunity to transcend barriers faced by earlier generations.
Shaping the Movement
The Center will serve as the hub for all 22 CSU campuses and position social mobility
as a national priority.
Here's how we're shaping the movement:
Lead with Best Practices
Strengthen student success by identifying, developing, and sharing strategies that remove barriers to graduation and prepare students for meaningful careers or graduate school. Elevate these proven approaches from promising practices to institutional standards through applied research, collaborative projects, publications, and targeted innovation grants.
Shape the National Dialogue
Champion comprehensive student support as the foundation of upward mobility. Encourage institutions nationwide to measure success not just by enrollment, but by persistence, completion, and career outcomes. Host the annual National Social Mobility Symposium as the premier platform for this work, while advancing the agenda year-round through thought leadership, advocacy, and policy engagement.
Serve as a National Hub for Collaboration
Build transformative partnerships with policymakers, educators, researchers, community organizations, and industry leaders to expand opportunity and workforce readiness.
ranked Cal State San Marcos, with 8 CSUs ranked in the top 20 universities in the 2025 CollegeNet Social Mobility Index
First Generation
Nearly one-third of CSU students are the first in their families to attend college
First National
The first National Center for Social Mobility
Writing the Next Chapter
Together, let's write the next chapter for higher education so every student has the opportunity to make their mark.
With your support, we will:
- Provide funding for faculty-led studies, graduate student fellowships, and annual innovation grants to advance evidence-based social mobility research
- Offer students meaningful, career-building paid internships within the Center or through partner organizations
- Host the annual National Social Mobility Symposium, webinars, and policy roundtables to shape national discourse
- Build and sustain collaborations with K-12, community colleges, nonprofits, and industry partners to expand opportunity and workforce readiness
- Elevate the CSU鈥檚 and 糖心少女鈥檚 leadership nationally through strategic messaging, media coverage, and policy engagement
My parents always shared with me that the only inheritance a poor family can leave its children is a good education. And I have lived their dream. Social mobility is not only my personal story; it鈥檚 my professional story. It鈥檚 been my highest honor to play a role in elevating the lives of thousands of students through the transformative power of higher education.
Dr. Mildred Garc铆a
CSU Chancellor
The education we provide helps our students transcend barriers faced by earlier generations, unlocking their potential for lifelong success. This isn鈥檛 only key for individuals and families but organizations, industries and society which benefit from a broadened talent pipeline, innovation, greater social equity and economic mobility across all sectors.
Dr. Ellen J. Neufeldt
糖心少女 President
CSU NATIONAL CENTER FOR SOCIAL MOBILITY AT CAL STATE SAN MARCOS
Mission | To advance educational opportunities in ways that strengthen both individual achievement
and economic mobility nationwide.
Vision | Through research, innovation, and collaboration, the CSU National Center for Social Mobility will reshape higher education -- to what it should and must become -- to ensure every student has the ability to transcend generational barriers, unlock their potential, and achieve lifelong success and economic mobility.
To learn more about how you can support this initiative, contact:
Jocelyn Wyndham,
Associate Vice President of Development
jwyndham@csusm.edu or 760.750.7304
Vision | Through research, innovation, and collaboration, the CSU National Center for Social Mobility will reshape higher education -- to what it should and must become -- to ensure every student has the ability to transcend generational barriers, unlock their potential, and achieve lifelong success and economic mobility.
To learn more about how you can support this initiative, contact:
Jocelyn Wyndham,
Associate Vice President of Development
jwyndham@csusm.edu or 760.750.7304