Building a Repeatable Way to Measure Life After the Scholarship
Two years of alumni research gave Washington State Opportunity Scholarship a clear, credible picture of scholar outcomes, and the tools to keep measuring them.
Client: Washington State Opportunity Scholarship (WSOS)
Services:
Focus Areas:
Executive Snapshot
Washington State Opportunity Scholarship (WSOS) partnered with Kinetic West in 2025 and 2026 to design, field, and analyze surveys of its scholarship alumni. Together, we gathered more than 1,100 survey responses on employment, financial wellbeing, workforce readiness, and the support scholars needed along the way, and built a survey process WSOS can own and repeat as they plan for the future.
WSOS invests in students pursuing high-demand credentials in STEM, health care, and the trades, with a focus on first-generation college students and students from lower-income families. Its board, funders, and legislative partners want to know what happens after graduation:
Do scholars land jobs?
Do they stay in Washington?
How do scholars say WSOS shaped their path?
Before 2025, it had been several years since WSOS had reviewed and updated their alumni survey methodology. As it charted its next chapter of strategy, WSOS needed current, credible data it could break down by the students it most wants to serve, and a process that wouldn't need to be rebuilt from scratch every cycle.
The Challenge
Our Approach
In 2025, we worked with WSOS to design and field a stratified random sample survey across Baccalaureate (BaS) and Career & Technical (CTS) Scholarship cohorts, built to produce findings on employment, earnings, geographic retention, and program experience. We then treated that first year as a learning lab. Online survey response rates are declining across the field, and inboxes are more crowded than ever, so for 2026 we built outreach and follow-up planning in from day one. We focused on recent graduates (2021–2025) across all three WSOS programs, including the Graduate Nursing Scholarship, and added measures of income sufficiency, pay satisfaction, and financial trajectory that complement administrative data sources. We tracked responses by program and cohort in real time and gave WSOS rolling non-respondent lists for targeted follow-up. Every result was disaggregated by program and by first-generation and income status, and we tested each sample against the full alumni population so WSOS would know how far the findings could stretch.
Key Outcomes
✔ A current picture of post-graduation outcomes. The 2025 survey reached 552 alumni: 82% were employed and 89% still lived in Washington. In 2026, 634 recent graduates responded, and every program's results came with a documented assessment of how well respondents matched the broader alumni population.
✔ Evidence that scholars are moving up. Among employed recent graduates, 76% of CTS alumni and 83% of Graduate Nursing alumni say their finances are better than before they started their program. Across programs, 87–90% felt prepared to enter the workforce and 90% or more felt supported while earning their credential. Many alumni also chose to share the most transformational part of their Opportunity Scholar experience, and a large share asked to learn more about volunteering with WSOS.
✔ A clearer view of where support can go further. Breaking results down by first-generation and income status surfaced patterns an overall average would hide. Among employed alumni, first-generation, lower-income scholars were less likely to have completed an internship, and BaS alumni in that group were more likely to still be seeking work (12% vs. 7%). More than one in three CTS alumni said costs beyond tuition, like housing and transportation, were a barrier they couldn't get enough support for.
✔ Findings that inform the decisions ahead. Alumni named internships and work-based learning as their most valuable preparation for the job search, and lack of work experience as their top barrier. Those insights give WSOS, its partner institutions, and employers a shared starting point for conversations about how scholars build real-world experience before they graduate.
Insights for the Field
The most valuable thing an outcomes survey produces may be the second survey. Treating year one as a learning cycle, and writing down what worked and what didn't, let WSOS spend 2026 getting sharper answers instead of rebuilding infrastructure.
We also saw that the right measure depends on what you already have. A survey earns its keep by capturing what administrative records can't: whether income covers the bills, whether life has improved, and how alumni describe the role their scholarship played.
Finally, as survey response rates fall across the sector, transparency about who you heard from matters. Testing samples against the full population and naming where results are directional gives leaders confidence to act on the findings that are solid.
Want to build a measurement approach your team can own?
Contact Casey White at avery@kineticwest.com to learn how we can help.