Blog

By Melaina Lenzi, Communications Intern What a year at Degrees of Change (DoC)! We welcomed familiar faces, came together as a community, and as always, supported young people in becoming homegrown leaders. Here’s what we’re celebrating from 2025:   New Team Members This year brought fresh energy to our team. We were thrilled to welcome Kelly Bay-Meyer,…

By Shalom DeJardin Before Degrees of Change ever asks students to lead, we make sure students know they belong. For many first-generation and underserved students, the path to college isn’t just academic—it’s emotional, cultural, and often invisible to others. When you show up in spaces…

As we reflect on another year of supporting students and watching them thrive, we at Degrees of Change have much to be grateful for. Here are our top moments of 2024: Continuing to Serve Young Leaders In 2024, we proudly continued our critical work serving…

In an era of doom-and-gloom headlines about higher education, we simply cannot overlook the enduring value of a college degree. Earning a degree remains a game-changer, especially for the young leaders Degrees of Change serves, many of whom are Black, Indigenous and people of color…

At Degrees of Change, we say our programs support the new faces of leadership that society desperately needs. However, we understand that such language may mean different things to different people in the current political climate. So, what do we mean as an organization when…

Degrees of Change founder Tim Herron grew up in Spokane, Washington, and moved to Tacoma in 1990 to attend the University of Puget Sound (UPS) as a math major. It was around the time of the Ash Street shootout in Tacoma’s historically redlined Hilltop neighborhood.…