Why do students choose not to pursue college, or drop out of college, even when they are provided with significant college counseling, external encouragement, and assistance in accessing financial aid? Mandy Savitz-Romer, Ph.D., director of the Harvard Graduate School of Education master’s program in Prevention Science and Practice and senior lecturer in education, provided some crucial answers to that question in her keynote to 500 educators, government, business and non-profit leaders attending the  College Changes Everything (CCE) Conference on July 19th in Tinley Park. The answers, said Savitz-Romer, are not necessarily to be found in more of the same—traditional college counseling, college fairs, FAFSA help—all of which are important but not necessarily sufficient to get students, particularly first generation students, to college. “If we can’t do more, we may have to do different,” said Savitz-Romer, who has focused her research on adolescent development to understand the “constellation of obstacles” that keep students from attending or persisting in college, even when they have been offered a host of external supports. A luncheon panel discussion with two recent college graduates and a high school student, all of whom overcame significant obstacles to get to college, highlighted not only some of the topics Savitz-Romer covered, but also the crucial business, education, and nonprofit partnerships that helped build pathways to success for these students. The College Changes Everything Conference was sponsored by the Illinois Student Assistance Commission (ISAC) in collaboration with partner agencies and organizations, the annual CCE Conference is the state’s premier higher education conference focused on improving efforts to make college possible for all Illinois students.