How an IR-Led Outreach Experiment Boosted Student Persistence at Greenville Technical College

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For many institutions, improving persistence and retention rates feels like an uphill battle, but Greenville Technical College (GTC) is proving what’s possible when data meets execution.

In this episode of Next Practices, we’re joined by Kevin McMindes, Assistant Director of Analytics at GTC, to explore how a focused, data-informed approach helped the college significantly boost student persistence rates—turning insight into action, and action into measurable impact.

Turn Execution into a Discipline

Facing challenges with persistence, Kevin and his team adopted the Four Disciplines of Execution framework. Instead of aiming at broad targets, they set specific goals: reach out to students with the lowest predicted persistence and measure the impact of those interventions.

The results? By the end of fall term, they had helped 219 students persist, boosting predicted persistence rates from 32.5% to 58%, a stunning 25 percentage point gain.

Make Advising Personal—at Scale

To scale their impact, GTC aimed for every student to have an advising appointment. Using Civitas Learning’s Student Impact Platform, they built dashboards to track progress and prioritize outreach. After reaching 44% of their goal, they doubled down, and ultimately hit 109% of their advising outreach target.

Even small touches made a big difference. As Kevin explains, many students could be positively influenced by a single personalized email. When messages are targeted and timely, engagement follows.

Data That Works With Advisors, Not Against Them

Kevin emphasizes that advisors are most effective when they have access to predictive insights—and when they believe in their power. After early wins, interest across campus surged. Staff saw that using data didn’t complicate their work, it made it easier to identify and support students who needed help most.

Smarter Targeting, Better Results

With the ability to segment student populations, the college could target interventions more precisely, rather than applying one-size-fits-all solutions. From scholarship recipients to students flagged by early alerts, the team used data to understand not just who was at risk, but why.

From Data Project to Culture Shift

As a fellow in Harvard’s Strategic Data Project, Kevin used the Initiative Analysis capability within the Civitas Learning platform to evaluate various student success initiatives—discovering high-ROI efforts like Brainfuse Online Tutoring and validating the value of personalized outreach and timely advising.

Ultimately, GTC’s journey shows how predictive analytics, combined with a culture of execution and care, can drive measurable change. It’s not about more data—it’s about using it intentionally to make students feel seen, supported, and successful.

“Sometimes, one person reaching out is all it takes.”

Listen to the full episode to hear Kevin’s full story—and how your institution can turn insight into impact.

Links and Resources:

• Civitas Learning Website
• Listen on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts
• Kevin McMindes – Greenville Technical College
• Kevin McMindes – LinkedIn
• Brainfuse Online Learning