Franklin Eccher EVST ’19 is a Joint PhD Student in Education and History at Penn

Franklin Eccher (EVST ‘19) is a second-year doctoral student in the Graduate School of Education and the History Department, where he studies the history of education as a Berkowitz Fellow.

Inspired by his work in Alaska, Franklin is interested in the value proposition of higher education for rural and Indigenous students, and how the pursuit of higher education has variously furthered and impeded the self-determination of rural and Indigenous communities.

In Alaska, Franklin designed programs for Outer Coast, an emergent postsecondary institution that is reimagining higher education in Alaska for Alaskans. He is passionate about college access for students historically underserved by American higher education, and about rethinking higher education writ-large to prioritize student agency and to give students the purpose, tools, and hope necessary to create better communities and a better world. 

At Yale, Franklin concentrated in Environmental Humanities and earned a certificate in Education. His senior essay, The Hardier Fish: An Environmental History of Trout and Grayling Management in the Montana “Trout Paradise”, earned the Gaylord Donnelley Prize and was advised by Paul Sabin.