By Lena Liu and Haoning Zhu
Holly Roose is working hard to make sure first-generation students thrive academically. The night before she was interviewed for this profile, Roose was on the phone with a student until midnight to help him figure out his schedule for the next quarter.
"I am available for students 24 hours a day, seven days a week. My students are my kids and my entire life," she said.
Roose is the director of UC Santa Barbara's Promise Scholars Program, which empowers high-achieving, first-generation students from low-income households. She is passionate about advising students, making sure they hit their academic marks, supporting them to overcome life difficulties, and helping them plan for future careers. Thanks to her continuing efforts, several hundred at-risk students who were at risk of dropping out of college have gotten accepted to top graduate schools since 2019.
Working in the program for three years, Roose is impressed by many of its students. She once assisted a low-income student who was caught shoplifting for a pen at the campus store, and he later completed his studies and got a decent job. She also secured housing for a female student to save her from a traumatic household and helped her to graduate.
“I always think about these students and reflect on them: What if they had given up? They wouldn’t be doing what they are doing,” Roose said.
Holly Roose, director of UCSB’s Promise Scholars Program, sits in her office with her students’ photos on the wall and the plants they have bought her. Photo by Lena Liu.
Roose recognizes the importance of higher education because it changed her entire life. Growing up in a violent single-parent household on welfare with lots of trauma in a neighborhood in Alabama, she was pulled out of class by a teacher in her fourth grade who told her that she was very disruptive and would never go to college.
Roose graduated from high school with a 1.9 GPA, but grades didn’t define her. She decided to try some community college classes for intellectual stimulation. To her surprise, she not only got “A” s, but her English teacher nominated her for writing awards, which dramatically increased her confidence. She then decided to go to college and explore more possibilities in her life, continuing to study until receiving her Ph.D. degree at UCSB in 2017.
When she was working as a teaching assistant, Roose had a reputation widely known on campus for helping at-risk students. When students in her section were about to fail, Roose initiated contact to set up regular meetings with them to plan out their studies and lives.
“Working with students one-on-one has been her passion for such a long time, long before she finished her Ph.D., and long before she got her job in the program,” said Janna Haider, Roose’s teaching assistant in her interdisciplinary class, Transitioning to Academic Excellence, in winter 2022.
The ways that Roose helped students were exactly how she had been helped by a great mentor in her college. Darrell Millner, an African Studies professor at Portland State University, cared so much about Roose’s success and ultimately changed her life. He met with her every week to tell her how to be a good student and a good human being contributing to the world.
“He told me to organize lecture notes and start doing assignments in advance, and he helped me with my master’s degree. I had his help, which made my life, and that’s why I am here to help my students,” said Roose.
Learning from Millner’s mentorship, Roose developed a contract system that requires her students to attend regular time management meetings and specific workshops to maintain a 2.75 quarterly GPA. She also helps them revise resumes and cover letters for job applications after graduation.
Program director Holly Roose meets with Promise Scholar Ramón Ríos to make a weekly study plan. Photo courtesy of “The Current.”
"The program wouldn't exist without her and the work she puts in. She's the foundation of the program, and I don't think that many students would be succeeding to the levels they are without her help," said Addis Gates, the Social Chair of the Promise Scholars Program.
Roose is also paying forward her early encouragement in writing via the Gabler Promise Scholars Writing Program, in which Promise Scholars work with UCSB Writing Program faculty mentors on special projects. The program is funded by a generous gift from Elizabeth and Lee Gabler and family. Elizabeth Gabler is a UCSB alumna with a degree in English literature, who is president of 3000 Pictures, a division of Sony Pictures.
And to serve more students at UCSB, Roose also runs the Scholar Retention Program that provides tuition fees for at-risk students who are cut off from financial aid due to academic disqualification. Roose works with those students to figure out what went wrong and helps them get back on track and graduate from college.
"Selfless, nurturing, and loving," is how Gates describes Roose.
As the social chair of the Promise Scholars Program, Gates has been working closely with Roose for nearly two years. She admires how Roose has always prioritized her students and pushed them to be their best selves.
"She always has her office door open and is always there to help students through whatever's happening in their lives," Gates said.
Lena Liu is a second-year UC Santa Barbara Communication major student. Haoning Zhu is a third-year UC Santa Barbara Communication major student.
They co-wrote this article for their Writing Program class, Digital Journalism.