FW: Scholarship money going unclaimed!!

From: edequity@phoenix.edc.org
Date: Thu Mar 09 2000 - 15:55:25 EST

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    Many Thanks to Mary Gannon for passing this on:
    "Kathy Johnson" <kjohnson@vismt.org>

    >>If you know any minority students headed for college who could use extra
    >money, let them know about this. DEADLINE IS MARCH 15!!!
    >
    > > (For more information about the Gates Millennium Scholars Program,
    > > call 1-877-690-4677, or visit http://www.gmsp.org .)
    > >
    > > Build a scholarship, but will they come?
    > >
    > > Editorial
    > >
    When Bill and Melinda Gates created a $1 billion nationwide
    scholarship fund last fall, the education dean at the University of
    Washington boasted he could find 1,000 students just in the
    Seattle area who would qualify. So where the heck are they?
    > >
    The Gateses pledged to pay for the college educations of 1,000
    minority students a year - for the next 20 years - beyond other
    financial aid they receive. The applications should be flooding in
    from every corner of the United States. Instead, they are
    dribbling in - only about 800 completed applications so far.
    That's much better than the 250 reported last week, but still a
    humble start.
    > >
    Perhaps a few hundred thousand students plan to FedEx their
    applications at midnight on March 15, as teenagers and other
    deadline-lovers are apt to do. Washington must ensure its young
    people are well-represented applicants for this stunning home-
    grown opportunity - especially after passage of Initiative 200,
    which ends affirmative action in public institutions.
    > >
    Here's the checkoff list for eligibility: The scholarships are
    open to African-American, Hispanic, Asian Pacific or Native
    American students with financial need, leadership skills and cumulative
    grade-point averages of 3.3 or higher. The students have to be applying to
    college, enrolled in an undergraduate program, or working toward a
    graduate degree in engineering, math, science, education or
    library science.
    > >
    Both the supply and demand are enormous. About 70,000 minority
    students in the United States are eligible for financial aid and
    have a 3.3 GPA or higher. Even if only half of them had leadership
    skills, that's still 34,200 students who could apply to become
    Gates Millennium Scholars, but haven't.
    > >
    College tuition in Washington has risen three times faster than
    the median income since 1980, making sticker shock a real obstacle
    for lower-income families. Minorities are often more likely to
    drop out, and they are nearly nonexistent by the doctoral stage:
    Only 1 to 2 percent of doctoral degrees awarded in this country
    each year go to blacks, Hispanics or Native Americans.
    > >
    It makes a difference to minority students' career advancement and
    earning potential. It makes a difference later, to their children.
    > >
    Getting the word out before March 15 will take grass-roots efforts,
    not just from organizations like the local chapter of the NAACP,
    >but from parents, neighbors and co-workers. Printing applications from
    > >the Web site for employees could help. Volunteering to grade papers or
    >be a guest speaker in a high-school classroom would help with
    >teachers' extra workload writing nomination letters for colleges and
    scholarships. So would assisting a student with the application.
    > >
    Today's problem is not lack of talent, but insufficient
    communication. Surely, the communication-savvy state of Washington can rise
    to this occasion over the next three weeks.
    > >
    For more information about the Gates Millennium Scholars Program, call
    1-877-690-4677, or visit http://www.gmsp.org .)
    > >

    William A. Howe, Ed.D.
    Associate Education Consultant
    Connecticut State Dept. of Education
    165 Capitol Ave. Room 360, Box 2219
    Hartford, CT 06145-2219
    Tel:860-566-8228 / FAX 860-566-1098
    E-mail: william.howe@po.state.ct.us



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