By Zach Miller

College graduates are 88% more likely to hold a job than adults without a degree. They earn substantially higher wages. And they participate in civic life at roughly double the rate of their peers who never finished a four-year program. Those findings, drawn from NASPA’s national data on first-generation college students and graduates, offer one of the clearest available pictures of what a college degree delivers in measurable economic and social terms.

For Jean-Pierre Conte, the managing partner of his family office Lupine Crest Capital and a first-generation college graduate himself, those numbers carry personal weight. He’s spent decades funding scholarships, mentorship programs, and university partnerships designed to move more students toward the kind of outcomes that data now confirms, particularly those from families with no college history. His approach has been shaped by his own experience as someone who grew up without the financial resources or family connections that smooth the path to a diploma. Conte’s father worked as a tailor; his mother left Cuba with little more than ambition. College, for the Conte family, was something that had to be earned.

What the Employment Numbers Show for Jean-Pierre Conte and Other Education Advocates

The 88% employment advantage reported by NASPA sits alongside a broader pattern documented by federal agencies. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, workers with a bachelor’s degree earned median weekly wages of $1,543 in 2024, compared with $930 for those whose highest credential was a high school diploma. That gap amounts to more than $31,000 per year before accounting for benefits, retirement contributions, or career advancement.

Unemployment tells a similar story. Bachelor’s degree holders faced a 2.5% jobless rate in 2024; high school diploma holders faced 4.2%. Workers without any diploma fared worse, at 6.2%. The pattern has been tracked by the BLS for more than a decade, and it hasn’t shifted: more education, lower unemployment, higher earnings.

The wage data also shows a steep gradient across other credential levels. Workers with a doctoral degree earned a median of $2,278 per week; those with a professional degree earned $2,363. An associate’s degree brought median weekly earnings to $1,099. Each additional credential moved the needle, but the single largest jump occurred between a high school diploma and a bachelor’s degree, where weekly earnings rose by more than 65%.

For someone who grew up without wealth or family connections to the professional world, those numbers aren’t abstractions. They describe the difference between the life Conte’s parents had and the one he was able to build after attending Colgate and Harvard.

Civic Engagement and the College Effect

Employment and wages account for only part of the picture. NASPA’s research also found that college graduates are twice as likely to be civically engaged as non-graduates, a category that includes volunteering, community leadership, and participation in local and national institutions.

College graduates vote at higher rates, volunteer more frequently, and contribute more to charitable causes than adults who didn’t complete a four-year program. The connection runs deeper than income alone. Networks formed during college, sustained work on difficult problems, and regular exposure to unfamiliar viewpoints all appear to play a role. None of that is easily replicated outside a campus setting.

The civic engagement finding matters partly because it suggests the returns on a college degree aren’t purely individual. Graduates don’t just earn more. They tend to participate more actively in the communities where they live, whether through local organizations, nonprofit boards, or voter turnout. That has downstream effects on the quality of civic institutions themselves, and it creates a cycle where educated communities attract further investment and engagement over time.

For Jean-Pierre Conte, who grew up in Brooklyn, New York, and New Jersey as the son of immigrants, the civic dimension of education holds particular significance. His father, Pierre, fled France following the Nazi occupation and built a career as a tailor and clothing salesman with Wall Street clientele. His mother, Isabel, left Cuba seeking independence and a life of greater possibility. Both modeled a form of civic participation rooted in gratitude and hard work long before their son attended college.

Jean-Pierre Conte’s Path From First-Generation Student to Education Funder

Conte was the first member of his family to attend college. He earned his degree from Colgate University and later attended Harvard Business School. “I remember being a student at Colgate and being the first in my family to go to college,” he recalls.

That experience shaped his understanding of the barriers first-generation students encounter. Many arrive on campus without the professional networks, institutional knowledge, or financial safety nets that their continuing-generation peers take for granted. A student whose parents went to college knows, almost by osmosis, how office hours work, when to talk to an adviser, and what a resume should look like. A student whose parents didn’t go to college has to figure all of that out in real time, often while also working to cover expenses.

“I grew up in a pretty modest household that had big dreams, big aspirations, and lots of love, but we didn’t have a lot of resources,” Conte says. “We had a lot of love and a good family, and people helped me along the way.”

Those early experiences led to the creation of the Conte First Generation Fund, which supports students at several major American universities, including Colgate and Harvard. Support is offered through the fund to students who are the first in their families to pursue a four-year degree. The fund was designed to address the specific kinds of gaps that Conte encountered during his own time as a student, where financial support alone wasn’t always enough to close the distance between first-generation students and their peers.

How Jean-Pierre Conte Supports Students Before They Reach Campus

Conte’s work extends beyond the university level. Through partnerships with organizations like Sponsors for Educational Opportunity and 10,000 Degrees, he supports programs that reach students in middle school and high school, well before the college application process begins.

“A light went off, and I came to the conclusion that I need to start supporting students sooner, in high school or earlier, to really help change the trajectory to help them succeed,” Conte says.

Sponsors for Educational Opportunity, where Conte has been involved for years, runs an intensive program that requires students to commit to after-school classes, Saturday sessions, and summer coursework on top of their regular public school schedules. 10,000 Degrees, based in the San Francisco Bay Area, provides mentoring and college preparation for students from low-income backgrounds. Both programs operate on the premise that the pipeline to a degree begins long before a student ever submits an application. And the data supports that premise: students who receive structured academic mentoring and college preparation during their high school years are more likely to enroll, persist, and graduate.

These programs provide mentoring, academic preparation, and exposure to professional environments that many first-generation students wouldn’t otherwise encounter. The logic isn’t complicated. If a college degree produces an 88% employment advantage, then the barriers to finishing matter as much as the degree itself.

“It’s about closing the information gap and giving students the tools they need to succeed,” Conte notes.

Why First-Generation Students Face Steeper Odds

First-generation college students face steeper odds than their continuing-generation peers at every stage of the pipeline, from application to enrollment to graduation. They’re more likely to attend under-resourced high schools, less likely to receive guidance on college admissions, and more likely to leave before earning a diploma. When they do finish, the payoff is often larger precisely because they started further behind.

The information gap that Conte frequently references extends to knowing which questions to ask, whom to ask them of, and when to ask, and it can matter as much as tuition assistance. A first-generation student who doesn’t know that unpaid research positions can lead to graduate school recommendations, or that summer programs run by professional organizations can open doors to careers in finance or technology, will miss those opportunities entirely. The cost of that missing knowledge compounds quietly over years. And it’s one of the reasons Conte’s philanthropic model prioritizes mentorship and information access alongside financial aid.

The Conte First Generation Fund, Jean-Pierre Conte’s partnerships with high school mentoring organizations, and his own years of involvement on university boards all address different points along the same path.

“Keeping that American dream alive is incredibly important for society and for the economy,” Conte says.