Giving Compass' Take:

• Christopher Robert, founder of Dobility, describes his nontraditional college experience and credits the two community colleges he attended as supportive environments for him to ultimately achieve his goals. 

• Robert supports the College Promise Movement, which sets up programs for students to attend community college without having to worry about debt. Would it help this program to have other successful entrepreneurs publicly supporting it?

• Read about California's community colleges that are making positive changes. 

As the founder and CEO of the social enterprise Dobility, Dr. Christopher Robert employs a growing staff of professionals in locations spread across four continents. When he is sorting through applications, he says certain applicants stand out: community college alumni.

That’s because he knows first-hand the value of a community college education. Though he graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of North Carolina and earned his Ph.D. from Harvard University—concentrating in public policy, development economics, and applied economics—he started his educational journey at two community colleges.

College Promise Programs can help motivated students finish their degrees without taking on a mountain of debt and can provide them access to the high-quality teaching, materials, and ideas offered in community colleges.He credits his experiences at Broward Community College and Northern Virginia Community College for helping him to launch, re-think, and ultimately expand a career that has included turns as a technologist, economist, researcher, adjunct lecturer at Harvard University, and finally entrepreneur.

While his educational journey culminated in degrees earned in Chapel Hill and Cambridge, Robert recognizes the importance of the foundation he built at those community colleges in Florida and Virginia. Given his own experience, Robert believes that everyone should have access to a high-quality community college education. “Whether you’re a high school student looking for a greater challenge, a recent graduate looking for affordable education close to home, or someone looking to pick up skills for a new career, everybody should have that kind of access to learning,” says Robert.

That’s why he supports the College Promise movement, the non-partisan drive for communities and states to make a community college education as universal and free as public high school.

Read the full article about accessible higher education by Andra Armstrong at Forbes