GRADUATION & EMPLOYMENT REPORT 2020-2024
The finish line is financial.
Five years of data on 4,296 Last Mile awardees tell a consistent story:
Students have the ability to finish.
A few hundred dollars at the right moment can put a degree within reach.
Here's the evidence.
Sarah A. Outland, PhD · Melissa Osborne, PhD · Batool Zaidi, PhD
THE HEADLINE
Completion isn't random. It responds to design.
When financial security is restored near the finish line, students graduate, regardless of income, race, gender, or institution type.
This report is the data behind that claim: what drives completion, what happens after graduation, and where the model still has work to do.
WHAT THE DATA SHOWS
Six findings, one pattern.
HOW WE KNOW
Built to hold up.
4,296 awardee records, anticipated graduation through December 2024. 3,134 graduate records with tracked employment, sourced via LinkedIn starting Fall 2025. A 1,571-student subset isolates bespoke, needs-tailored awards against fixed emergency awards under $600.
Every figure in this report is benchmarked against NCES, IPEDS, National Student Clearinghouse, and BLS data where a comparable figure exists.
WHO WE SERVE
The students merit aid wasn't built to catch.
Last Mile's population looks like the innovation workforce needs it to — not like the students traditional scholarship criteria screen for. 50/50 split between 2-year and 4-year institutions. Concentrated in computer & information tech, engineering, and cybersecurity.
DEGREE COMPLETION
The economics are almost absurd.
Every racial group graduates at 75%+.
Students reporting food or housing insecurity graduate at the same rate as everyone else.
AFTER THE DEGREE
Graduation is the finish line. It's not the whole race.
This is the one gap that reopens after graduation. Last Mile closes it at the degree. Closing it in the workforce is next.
THE RETURN
A few hundred dollars, at the right moment, changes the outcome.
Flexibility drives return as much as funding level does.
Needs-tailored awards outperform fixed emergency awards at every size, including under $600
THE TAKEAWAY
The barrier is financial.
It's solvable.
Last Mile's model doesn't just improve completion — it narrows the gaps that usually widen at graduation, because it meets students at the exact moment those gaps end an education for good. That's design, not luck. The open question is what happens after: equity at the degree hasn't yet become equity in the workforce. That's the next phase of this research.
FOR RESEARCHERS & PRESS
Cite this research
Outland, S.A., Osborne, M., & Zaidi, B. (2026). Dimensions of Graduation and Employment Outcomes for Last Mile Education Fund Awardees, 2020–2024.
Last Mile Education Fund
The talent pipeline doesn't need to be wider. It needs to stop leaking.
The students who will build, secure, and direct the innovation economy are already enrolled. Last Mile makes sure they graduate.