The solution? Metropolitan College – a unique public-private partnership that dramatically increased retention among workers during the wee hours each night. Average tenure of a third-shift worker grew from eight weeks prior to the program’s launch to three years as of fall 2022.

The program also provided more than 22,000 students over the past 25 years the opportunity to earn a college degree 100% debt-free.

Metro College allows students at the University of Louisville or Jefferson Community and Technical College to work at Worldport, earning a weekly paycheck and payment of their tuition, academic bonuses and fee payment assistance. The program receives state support to fund up to 50% of tuition and fees. The company also provides academic bonuses that include semester and graduation bonuses. The program launched in the fall semester of 1998 as a partnership among UofL, JCTC, UPS, Louisville Metro Government and the commonwealth of Kentucky.

“Metropolitan College seemingly has no downside,” said UofL President Kim Schatzel. “Prior to my academic career, I spent 20 years in industry, so I see the value of Metro College across the board. The state of Kentucky, UPS, JCTC and UofL have created a national model of what a combined education-workforce-economic development initiative can and should be.”

“In addition to paying for college, Metro College provides a student with a livelihood while they are in college,” said Ty Handy, JCTC president. “That is crucial for many students who must support themselves either fully or partially while they are in school. And the added value of the career and academic guidance they receive cannot be underestimated.”

“For UPS, the success of Metro College has been integral to our ability to deliver what matters to our customers around the world,” said UPS President Jim Joseph. “In addition to the steady source of talent to help us run our Worldport operation, the program provides student-workers the opportunity to pursue their dreams debt-free, while also receiving competitive pay, benefits and work-life experience and guidance. Our community benefits by growing and enhancing the talent pool within the commonwealth. The program really is a win-win-win for all involved.” 

Thalia Almenares came to Louisville in 2016 from Cuba and began work at UPS in 2017. Through Metro College she started taking classes at JCTC before transferring to UofL where she graduated in May as a dental hygienist.

“UPS was the best bet for my dreams,” she said. “I couldn’t believe it when they told (me) they were going to pay my tuition 100% in full. But also, with the help of the UPS team, I was able to overcome the language barrier and have a job to support my family while earning a great education. The program also provides you with a great work-life balance. I wasn’t sure if it was possible to be a student and work at the same time, but UPS opens that door.”

Another program benefit is the chance to learn leadership skills and to rise in the ranks while still enrolled in college. Just ask graduates Jeff Wafford (2003) and Donovan Neal (2019).

“Coming out of high school, I knew I couldn’t pay for college. I was actually planning to go into the military until a friend of mine told me about UPS two months before the semester started,” Donovan Neal said. “I began in August 2012 in the UPS hub as a package handler and eventually got a role as a supervisor in finance and accounting.”

He graduated from UofL with a degree in finance and today works in human resources for UPS.

Likewise, Jeff Wafford progressed through the ranks of the multinational shipping company. He enrolled in Metro College more than two decades ago and started as a package handler. Now director of public affairs, Wafford continues to tout Metro College. “Today, I not only have the chance to talk about it to our leaders here locally and throughout Kentucky but also to the states I cover, in the Virginias and the Carolinas. They all want to know, ‘What can we do in our states to have a program like this?’ ”

The rigors of overnight work – Metro College students work 11 p.m. to 4 a.m. about 15 hours per week – coupled with college enrollment can be daunting, but Metro College staff advise entering students to enroll as a parttime student to get adjusted to the new routine. And they provide advice on life skills that students may need throughout their time in college.

Yet Wafford notes that working overnight may not be as much of a problem as might be imagined.

“Twenty-three years ago, my then-college roommate and I were up at 3 o’clock in the morning, as college students sometimes are, and we saw this ad for Metro College,” he said. “We said, ‘We should do this. We’re up all night anyway. We have these loans we’re getting ready to take out, and we need some money.’ So the next day, we applied.

“I’ve talked about Metro College now for 23 years and hopefully, I’ll get to talk about it for the next 23 years,” Wafford said “Let’s keep this program going for the future of the commonwealth.”

For more information about Metro College visit metro-college.com.

UofL Interim President Lori Gonzalez and local officials gathered Friday to announce the effort through Supplies Overseas (SOS), an organization that works with area hospitals and healthcare providers to collect gently/unused medical supplies and send them to those in need. UofL surgeon Gordon Tobin, a founding board member of SOS, also participated in the announcement.

Former ambassador to the Slovak Republic Tod Sedgwick said his contacts in Ukraine stressed the need for medical supplies. The local organization has collected almost 20 pallets of supplies – worth more than $100,000 — including bandages, defibrillators, and anesthesia and orthopedic supplies, said SOS president Denise Sears. The organization also is sending personal protective equipment in response to Covid-19 concerns in the region.

SOS has worked with local philanthropist Christina Lee Brown to secure funding for the initiative, and officials from UPS have offered their services to help transport the supplies.

“This is a partnership of many elements of our compassionate community,” Tobin said, noting that the organization was created more than two decades ago by physicians at the UofL Department of Surgery, with early participation by UofL, Jewish and Norton hospitals. “And they continue to supply the needed supplies you see here today.”

Tobin said SOS has shipped more than $60 million in supplies to more than 106 countries around the world.

Gonzalez said UofL’s participation is an example of one of its Cardinal Principles, being a Community of Care. And she thanked those who have pulled the initiative together.

“This is an example of the university and the city stepping up to help those in need,” she said. “To the people of Ukraine, you are in our thoughts. You are in our prayers. And more importantly 
 we are able to take action to actually give help on the ground.”

People wishing to donate medical supplies can drop them off at the SOS headquarters, 1500 Arlington Avenue in Louisville, or request pick up for larger items. The first shipment of supplies to Ukraine is expected to leave Louisville early this week.

 “Today is a historic day in the commonwealth – we are at the beginning of the end of our war with COVID-19,” said Gov. Beshear, who was at UofL Hospital as UPS delivered the vaccines. “The Pfizer vaccine, which we believe to be 95% effective, is the defense we have needed to end this pandemic, and with the highly effective Moderna vaccine likely on its way to approval soon, we are all filled with hope for the first time in a very long time. Thank you to everyone who helped make this possible. To our front-line workers: we are forever grateful for your bravery, talents and compassion.”

The Governor watched as five UofL Health doctors and nurses, who have been working on the front lines to help Kentuckians during the once-in-100-years pandemic, received their vaccinations in public and before the media. Sarah Bishop, director of infection prevention at UofL Hospital, administered the vaccinations to all five.

Dr. Jason Smith, a front line emergency and trauma surgeon and UofL Health chief medical officer was the first to receive the vaccine.

“The arrival of this vaccine demonstrates the best of medicine and our commonwealth’s collaborative spirit,” said Dr. Smith. “For the first time, we now have a tool to minimize the spread of COVID-19 in a significant way. I appreciate the leadership of Gov. Beshear and UPS working to expedite getting this vaccine to our frontline health care workers. And I am humbled by the ongoing individual sacrifices of so many Kentuckians who continue to help through social distancing and masking until the vaccine is more widely available to the general population.”

Two UofL Health nurses and two UofL Physicians were the next in line.

LaShawn Scott has worked for UofL Health for more than 20 years as an infection prevention nurse. Scott has worked tirelessly to help support our front-line staff in ensuring they have the PPE they need and know how to use it correctly and making sure the health care system has protocols in place to help the frontline staff stay safe as they battle the pandemic.

Beth Sum is an emergency department nurse at UofL Health and a nurse educator at UofL Health – Jewish Hospital. She has been instrumental at caring for and developing nursing protocols around COVID-19 care in the emergency department.

Dr. Valerie Briones-Pryor has been with UofL Health for over 16 years. She has been working with COVID-19 patients at UofL Health – Jewish Hospital since March 17, and said she lost her 27^th COVID-19 patient Monday morning.

“I did this for them, for all of my patients,” said. Dr. Briones-Pryor. “I was honored to be one of the first five to receive this vaccine.”

Dr. Muhamed Saad is the director of critical care at UofL Health – Jewish Hospital. Throughout the pandemic, he has taken care of all COVID-19 ICU patients throughout the UofL Health system.  

The initial shipment of the two-dose Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines arrived in Kentucky on December 13, 2020.

UofL is seeking to fast-track development of , including application to the Food and Drug Administration, for approval to begin treating patients already infected with COVID-19. The UPS gift, which will fund trials and test materials, will help enable that work.

“UPS delivers all over the world, so everywhere we operate is now affected by the COVID-19 pandemic,” said UPS Airlines President Brendan Canavan. “We’re committed to serve every one of those communities and are hopeful that this grant will help unlock an effective treatment for the virus.”

UPS Airlines is based in Louisville, and UPS has a long-standing relationship with UofL through the Metropolitan College program.

The work being conducted at UofL involves a piece of synthetic DNA known as an “aptamer” and was originally developed as a cancer treatment by researcher with co-researchers John Trent and Dr. Don Miller. With the global pandemic of coronavirus and the COVID-19 disease it causes, Bates partnered with fellow researcher Kenneth Palmer, director of UofL’s Center for Predictive Medicine for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases, to apply the technology once again.

Their work is especially promising because the biotechnology has already been tested in clinical trials, and researchers have conducted proof-of-concept experiments showing the aptamer is effective against the virus. Previous clinical trials for cancer patients also show that the treatment is safe for patients.

“I deeply appreciate the gift from UPS that helps support my work,” said Bates, a professor of medicine. “It is with gifts such as this that we will be able to advance our research and our ability to treat the novel coronavirus. I’m also thankful to be in such a collaborative setting with great facilities and a supportive environment for translational research. There are only a few places where we could have tested this idea so quickly.”

The program, in partnership with UPS, Jefferson Community and Technical College and the state of Kentucky, allows college students to work the third shift, for about 15 hours a week, at UPS’ World Port Freight Facility at the Louisville International Airport. In return for their work, UPS gives each student a paycheck and covers their tuition and fees.

Metro College also to help place students in careers after graduation through its built-in Career and Academic Planning Program, which requires students to complete a career assessment and meet with a counselor regularly.

It’s not hard to figure out why UofL would want to keep this program going. For starters, it provides students with a unique opportunity to graduate debt-free. It also encourages them to consider careers in high-demand fields like computer sciences and health care.

Thalia Almenares, a dental hygiene major at UofL, is one such student taking advantage of the program.

“If UPS is my big family, then Metro College would be my mother,” . “I say this because my mother makes sure that I have food, that I feel supported and loved, that I have everything I need. Well, Metro College provides me everything regarding school needs.”

It’s also a win for UPS, which has struggled in the past with workforce shortages. Before the college launched, the average tenure of an overnight worker was eight weeks. Today, it’s almost three years.

As the : “We need employees here to work at night, and it’s a challenging time. It’s a challenging shift. The benefit is we get great students who are committed, many of them come here, stay four years so it really is possible to graduate with zero debt.”

Because of this mutual benefit, the program earned recognition in 2017 by University Business magazine as a “Model of Excellence.” UofL was one of six colleges and universities honored by the publication. 

The Metro College program was founded in 1988. Since its inception, 20,756 UofL and JCTC students have participated. Most recently, from the spring 2019 through the fall 2019, the program had a total of 4,336 enrolled participants – 2,511 of whom are from UofL and 1,825 of whom are from JCTC.

According to Carrie Faller, director of Workforce and Student Development at Metro College, the goal is to reach 2,800 UofL participants per semester.

“For the last two years, we have focused on increasing enrollment, which is reflected in [our enrollment trends],” she said.

Indeed, that most recent 2,511-participant number is much higher than the 1,811 number from the fall of 2018. When the program first started, there were less than 800 UofL participants.

Yielding an upward enrollment trajectory will remain a goal for the program throughout the next seven years and, potentially, beyond.

“The Metropolitan College program is a workforce development initiative that removes financial barriers to postsecondary education while supporting workforce needs, preparing participants for future careers through targeted career development activities, offering workforce pathways to high-demand fields, and providing opportunities to grow participant wealth,” Faller said.

More students are taking advantage of , a partnership with United Parcel Service that makes it possible for students to earn a degree and graduate debt-free. There also is an upsurge in new students enrolled part-time, many of whom are interested in the university’s growing number of online degree programs, which tend to attract adult students who work full-time. 

“UofL strives to be an institution where every student can create their own path to graduation, including traditional, online and part-time students. I’m excited to see continued growth in programs that serve every type of student,” said UofL President Neeli Bendapudi. “This will be my second incoming class, and I’ve been counting down the days until the fall semester begins.”

The increased participation in the Metropolitan College program is most likely attributed to UPS’ boost in the starting wage to $14 for overnight package handlers, effectively drawing a greater number of students who work for the shipping company, which then pays for their full-time undergraduate tuition. Metropolitan College also recently implemented an option for students to begin the program part time during a “transitional” semester, contributing to the university’s uptick in freshmen attending school part time. 

Another factor in the increase of part-time students is the growing number of completely online programs. UofL offers more than 35 online programs including master’s, bachelor’s, certificates and teaching endorsements. Of this fall’s new students, 485 plan to earn their degrees completely online; most of those are adults returning to college. UofL’s current online enrollment for all students is 1,469. 

The increased availability of online programs and strong partnerships with Metropolitan College and Jefferson Community & Technical College have helped UofL attract 77 transfer students for fall semester. JCTC students can participate in the Metropolitan College program.

Of students starting today, nearly 2,600 are freshmen. Here’s a snapshot of the first-time freshman class:

• 56% have some college credits
• 17% are African American or identify as mixed race
• 6% are Hispanic/Latino 
• 72% live on campus 
• 17% are first-generation college students
• 25.6 is the average ACT score, well above the 2018 Kentucky average of 20
• 3.6 is the average high school grade-point average, based on a 4.0 scale
• 22% are from outside Kentucky
• 38 states represented
• 271 part-time incoming freshmen, up 70 from last year
• Psychology, biology, business, education and nursing are the five most popular majors.

“Our hope is that when someone is watching a game from the UPS Flight Deck, they’ll not only think of our beautiful aircraft flying overhead, but realize we’re connecting global communities with everything from medical supplies to e-commerce,” said Brendan Canavan, UPS Airlines president. “Continuing the relationship with the University of Louisville helps us educate a future workforce with the benefit of a tuition-free education at UofL. That’s a true team effort.”

The $5 million gift extends a strong relationship with Cardinal Athletics. UPS committed $3 million toward the expansion of Cardinal Stadium in 2009, with the upper deck of the football stadium named the UPS Flight Deck. This new gift will extend those naming rights for an additional 13 years.

The gift will also establish the UPS Leadership Academy within UofL Athletics. The UPS Leadership Academy is intended to support sophomore student-athletes as they develop their leadership framework by examining and reflecting on their individual leadership style and moving into a collective leadership model as part of a team, classroom and community.

“We have established a terrific partnership with UPS over the last 20 years,” said , UofL vice president and director of Athletics. “We are now excited about the level of support and array of programs designed to strengthen this partnership over the 13-year term of our agreement. We’re particularly delighted about the long-term benefits that our student-athletes will gain through the UPS Leadership Academy through the coming years.

The first Academy will consist of a keynote speaker and five workshops covering topics such as leadership styles and roles, emotional intelligence, leveraging athletic experiences to enhance career opportunities, servant leadership, goal getting/setting and will include a networking lunch of former student-athletes from varying career fields.

The program will also include the UPS Executive Speaker Series, exposing UofL student-athletes to some of the top leaders throughout the world in a variety of fields including management, aviation, human resources, sales, public relations and other areas.  The program will also seek to create more high-level internships for UofL student athletes at UPS. UPS’ main Global Air Hub is located in Louisville.

The Metropolitan College is the partnership between UofL, JCTC, UPS and the state of Kentucky. Through this partnership, students are expected to work the 3^rd shift at UPS’ World Port Freight Facility, located at Louisville International Airport.  In return for their work, UPS gives each student a paycheck and, more importantly, covers their tuition and fees. 

As part of the deal, students must take on an extremely busy schedule between work and school. UofL sophomore Julie Hummel is enrolled in the Metropolitan College. She admits her schedule is “crazy,” but adds “I feel so free knowing I don’t have to pay debt after college.” 

Check out more about these UofL students’ UPS work below:

The partnership is a win for the schools, company and students involved, said Tim Goral, senior editor at the publication. 

“It illustrates the powerful effects a university can have on its city’s economy,” he adds. 

In 1998, shipping giant UPS considered moving its overnight air hub out of Louisville. In response, UofL, Jefferson Community and Technical College, the city of Louisville and the state of Kentucky developed an innovative education initiative to keep the company in town. The program, named Metropolitan College, aims to to help UPS improve workforce retention while eliminating a financial barrier to higher education for Kentucky residents, says Courtney Abboud, director of workforce and student development for Metropolitan College.

Students in Metropolitan College work approximately 15 hours per week at UPS and attend courses at the university or community college. Approximately 60 percent of Metropolitan’s 2,300 students are enrolled at the university and 40 percent attend the two-year school. If students commit to work through the semester at UPS, the company pays half of the tuition. The balance is covered through federal and state grants and a state tax credit to UPS.

So far, 4,698 students have earned associate’s, bachelor’s and graduate degrees through the program.

Metropolitan College also has built-in career guidance.The Career and Academic Planning Program requires students to complete a career assessment and meet with a counselor regularly. After completing 30 credit hours, they create a resume and set career goals. At 60 credit hours, students complete an online experiential learning module and the counselor helps them obtain related professional experience. Then, at 90 credit hours, students participate in a mock interviews geared toward their career goals.

“The goal of the program was not to create long-term UPS employees, but to provide a temporary workforce and then put credentialed employees back into the workforce” in other companies throughout Kentucky, says Abboud.

Metropolitan College has also been a win for UPS, which initially struggled with a workforce shortage. Before the college launched, the average tenure of an overnight worker was eight weeks. Today, it’s almost three years.

In addition to University of Louisville, Summer 2017 Models of Excellence honorees include: Central Georgia Technical College (Macon, Ga.); Endicott College (Beverly, Mass.); McDaniel College (Westminster, Md.); University of Wyoming (Laramie, Wyo.); and Villanova University (Villanova, Pa.).

According to a press release, Models of Excellence was launched in 2015 as a national recognition program honoring colleges and universities that have implemented innovative, effective and inter-departmental initiatives that are bolstering student success.