Dean of Butler’s 2-year college pledges support to students
(MIRROR INDY) — Carolyn Gentle-Genitty remembers the people who took a chance on her.
Growing up in Belize as the eldest of five children, she was always involved in the community, leading youth groups and volunteering with the Catholic church her family attended. As she got older, she got into student government and the Belizean government’s youth service department.
But when the president of Spalding University, a private Catholic school in Louisville, visited her school in Belize and invited her to apply for a scholarship, she was hesitant. Her parents hadn’t gone to college. Plus, Gentle-Genitty was a solid B-plus student, and she worried her grades weren’t high enough.
As it turned out, students like her were exactly what Spalding was looking for.
“They said, we’re not looking for people with a 4.0,” she said. “We’re looking for people who are academically strong, but at the same time who can make an impact on other students and influence them, help them to get a better understanding of culture.”
That push changed her life. Gentle-Genitty got her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Spalding, both in social work, then came to Indiana University to get her PhD. In her years at IU, she’s researched a variety of topics on equity and education, including student absenteeism and the impact of policing on underfunded schools, also known as the school-to-prison pipeline.
In June, Gentle-Genitty will take the reins as the inaugural dean of Butler’s new two-year school, recently dubbed Founder’s College. The college, which will welcome its first cohort in fall 2025, aims to serve students from historically underserved communities and give them access to a Butler degree at a significantly reduced cost.
[The face of education is changing and Indy’s private colleges are keeping up.]
Gentle-Genitty hopes that in leading the school, she can be a support system for students like her younger self.
“If nobody saw me and my experiences, they wouldn’t have tapped me to apply for scholarships or apply for study abroad or apply to go to Spalding,” she said. “I have to make sure that I show up for the students in the application form, in how we advertise, in the partnerships that we establish with high schools and high school principals.”
Here’s some more takeaways from Mirror Indy’s conversation with Gentle-Genitty, edited for brevity and clarity:
Supporting low-income, first-generation students
Question: As a first-generation college student, how do you plan to use your experience to help lift up students at the two-year college at Butler?
Answer: The simple answer is exposure and experience. I believe in those two things.
The second is understanding experience. If you want change to occur, you want to look for those experiences that, one, mimic yours where you can see yourself in it, but two, where you can say, ‘Oh, my experience could be better used here.’ That’s why many of us leave one job and move to another, because we want that experience to be amplified.
For the student coming in, it’s helping that student before they come, so that when they are Googling, when they are looking for their next opportunity, when they are talking to a teacher; that teacher knows to amplify the experience that student had and to provide them the exposure and the opportunity to be a part. By the time that exposure takes place, that’s where Butler would want to stand tall. We would want to make sure that the opportunities are there for them to have access.
Q: When you were first coming to Spalding, is there anything that you wish that someone had done for you or told you, that you’re going to make sure that the students at Founder’s College know?
A: A lot of times we talk about under-resourced and resourced individuals and making sure that we serve them. When you recognize that, you have to recognize what is different with a student who comes from a resourced background versus someone who does not. Someone who comes from a resourced background may grow up with books all around their home. They may grow up with their parents available to ask any question from, how do I dress? Can you review this email for me? Can you just take me down to the campus so I could see what it looks like?
That resourced person will have access to all of that. So when they show up in an application, it’s much more polished. An under-resourced student who may not have access to all of those opportunities, when they show up to an admissions advisor, their questions are so rudimentary to some people. But to them, it’s the first time they’re even getting the opportunity to ask those questions with someone who is well informed to give them the right answer.
For me, when I showed up and that advisor was able to see me and say, ‘Let me pull you aside and let’s just have a conversation about what you want to be when you grow up and what gives you passion, what you get excited about.’ I told her, I get excited about being around people and helping them when they have a challenge or a concern, and making sure that that challenge or concern is addressed not just for that one individual, but for all others who may experience it later on. She said, ‘That’s not lawyering, darling.’ But you grew up thinking about lawyer and doctor and policeman as the top professions. You don’t think about social work.
When she pointed out all of these options, I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, I wish every under-resourced child would have an opportunity to meet somebody like you.’ That’s what I’m hoping that we can provide at the Founder’s College for these students, that they can show up and know that we will offer that family support that is often available to well-resourced students.
On Indy’s evolving higher education landscape
Q: There’s a lot happening in the sub-bachelor’s degree space. How do you plan to differentiate Founder’s College from other two-year degree programs like associate degrees at Ivy Tech or even St. Joseph’s College at Marian University?
A: We have to consider three things. The first is when you consider the Indiana market, the commissioner for higher ed indicated that our college-going rate is low. We’re in the 50s. It means instantaneously that the market is not saturated, that despite all of the efforts, we are still not meeting the population’s needs. So the opportunity to have another two-year college does not stop anybody else from doing great work in the field that they’re doing it.
The second is the population that we serve seeks different things. It’s the reason why many different colleges exist because students want different types of experiences. So the two-year at Ivy Tech continues to be a need. We love working with Ivy Tech. But at the same time, there’s students who want a Butler experience that is not available anywhere else.
The piece that makes it very, very different though, which is the third piece, is the Come to Believe model. The Come to Believe model is one that comes from a spiritual background. It also comes from recognizing that a lot of students who want to make a change want to be able to do it with a purpose. Gen Z, they want to be able to get a degree with purpose. And that’s what’s different at Butler. They are allowing the opportunity for your purpose-driven service life, service for others, to be front and center. This is not just another associate degree. This is one where you’re doing it within a family culture. You are fully supported, when at the same time, you will be fulfilled at the level that you can make change for others through your service, through your job, through your opportunities, through your innovation.
A message for the class of 2025
Q: Let’s say you’re a current high school junior, who just happens to be reading this article and thinking, the student she’s describing sounds like me. What would you say to them? What advice would you give them?
A: I would say, you are correct! Come and visit us or look us up online and visit the website.
I want students to feel and be affirmed that this is for them. We’ll probably take in 100 students for the first year. We’ll work out some kinks. We’ll make some mistakes. We’ll learn from the students, but they’re going to be front and center. We’re going to build in a mentoring program as well, so that other students who are already there can guide them through. They won’t be alone, I guarantee you that. We’ll be walking alongside them.
Claire Rafford covers higher education for Mirror Indy in partnership with Open Campus.
Got a higher ed story? Contact reporter Claire Rafford at claire.rafford@mirrorindy.org or on social media @clairerafford.