From Homelessness to Tech Success: How This CEO Is Removing Barriers for More Students

Estimated reading time: 6-7 minutes

SALT LAKE CITY — Tracy Gorham will never forget the academic advisor who changed her life.

She grew up in foster homes and was emancipated at 15. At 19, without a high school diploma and surviving on the streets, a friend recommended she go to Salt Lake Community College for help.

Not having a high school diploma shames her, Gorham said, and so she needs a little more courage to walk through those doors.

But when she did, she met an academic advisor who only selected a few subjects for her. Instead, she walked Gorham to the financial aid office, sat with her during a talk about Pell Grants, and helped Gorham explore her options and next steps.

Gorham became emotional as he talked about how this mentor helped her get the money to go to school.

“It’s really important to have support services for the students and people who really care about their success,” she said. “You can’t automate (people like my academic advisor). But what we can do is give students the (people-centered) moments they need the most.”

Gorham attended Westminster College in the years following her experience with SLCC. She worked in telecommunications and launched her first tech startup at the age of 24.

In the year In 2011, she and her husband, Michael Gorman, started ConexED: a software and video conferencing service that provides college services — financial aid, academic advising, tutoring and more — so that students, especially disadvantaged ones, can get the support they need. In one place and with the personal touch that Gorham values.

On Monday, more than 10 years after the company’s launch, ConexED held a grand opening party for a showroom that showcased its newest venture: Campus Anywhere, a booth that can be installed anywhere students reach campuses, high schools, community centers or colleges.

Knock button

Here’s how ConexED works: A computer interface connects students with a school representative through a private video chat. The agent then fulfills the student’s needs or forwards them to someone who can.

For example, if a student meets with an academic advisor but wants to discuss financial aid, the advisor can immediately transfer them to a financial aid representative. No time is lost in finding another office; No long commute to campus for rural students; And for evening or other non-regular students, there is no shortage of daytime-only work hours.

Delegates can also upload digital documents for signing, saving students the trouble of finding a printer and scanner. And since students aren’t required to download an app, they can access ConexED from any phone or computer, even their personal ones.

Gorham said she had the idea for ConexED while a part-time student at Westminster College. She said she was in a project-based degree program with 30 other seniors, many of whom were working or running businesses during the day.

She said 26 out of 30 people, including her, failed in the first semester.

A big part of the problem is that her program coach is only available for two hours on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, and she and most of her classmates are working.

“It’s not that we failed, it’s the system that failed,” Gorham said. “There’s no way we can get to campus to understand the next job or process or what we need.”

As Gorham shared her frustrations, a student at Delta told her she could knock on the door from anywhere to get in touch with student support services.

It was a eureka moment for Gorham.

“I took my telecommunications background, I took my UI/UX background and I made a door knocker,” she says.

Then, Tracy and Michael Goram started selling subscriptions to their service. The day before, they had sold to Brigham Young University-Hawaii in the morning and were married that evening on the beach of Oahu.

“(ConexED) was our first child,” said Gorham, who she and her husband are now parents to a 3-year-old and a 5-year-old.

Since then, they have partnered with 100 community colleges and 1,100 postsecondary centers in 12 countries, she said. She especially enjoys working with community college students, who she calls “the fabric of our community.”

“Removing roadblocks is what we do,” Gorham said.

She also said the company is not backed by any venture capital because it believes in understanding community needs and building a product that “moves the needle on student success.”

In addition, ConexED can save schools a significant amount of money because they often pay for multiple schedules before using ConexED, Gorham said.

“We have a big list of like 100 different features and functions of our technology,” she said. “So you can get rid of more technology, but you can get rid of cluttered systems. … Streamline the process. Have one place for staff and students to go, and get the right person at the right time for the right reasons.”

By expanding the reach of the Campus Anywhere booth, ConexED is taking it one step further. Students who don’t have a computer can go into a private booth to have their questions answered and their concerns addressed. One model is sufficiently compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act to accommodate wheelchair users. Another is large enough for multiple people to use at once, allowing families to talk with school officials or mental health counselors. About 300,000 counseling sessions were conducted through ConexED last year, Gorham said.

The ConexED subscription is $130,000, while the booth itself is $10,000. But schools are often paying more than that for various program services, she said.

For example, Pima Community College in Arizona spends $650,000 a year on programming, she said. If the subscription is paid for and community partners are found to support booth purchases, the college will experience significant cost savings.

With more money, Pima Community College could fund another building, hire more staff or offer more tuition, Gorham said.

“I don’t want you guys to pay a dime for this technology,” she told visiting college leaders at Monday’s grand opening. “I want our community partners to pay for it, and you put[the money saved]back into student success. That’s my vision.”

Overcoming obstacles

Sherry Utash, president of Wichita Area Technical College in Kansas, attended Monday’s grand opening and said her school ordered five Campus Anywhere booths. Teams are now training with ConexED, she said, and she hopes the booths will be fully up and running within the next 30 days.

She expects that will make a difference to the college’s night students, who are cut off from campus resources when staff leave at 6 p.m. Now, she said, many employees work remote night shifts.

Utash said one booth goes to an underrepresented high school in the area, another to an area with a large Hispanic population, and another to an area with a large black population.

The booths are a fusion of technology and human interaction, said Utash.

“(People) walk in there and the minute they touch that button, they have a human connection,” she said. “We hope to be able to overcome some[barriers]… and to create access, affordability and equity.”

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