High School Scholarships in Santa Ana

One of the great things to happen to education.

Students from impoverished families or disadvantaged communities have a difficult time becoming successful in education as it is structured today. Those students who make it through are the lucky ones, the exceptions to the rule. College scholarships reward only those who are already successful, the difficulty is reaching out to students during the process so that they can work towards becoming successful. A good comparison is measuring the impact of these "stipends" against the Gates Millenium Scholarships, which can total tens of thousands of dollars per student per college year. With stipends, you can spend a fraction of that amount and help students make it to college where financial aid, in more ample forms, are available.

Public high schools do not have endowments or govermental arrangements to provide students with money towards education, the only conceivable form is through private donations. While many applaud Gates for his commitment, his plan is shortsighted and can be construed as another example of throwing money at a problem. It is wasteful in practice, given the alternatives and an even stricter definition of what society needs accomplished: that equality can be achieved, through education, by way of a college degree. However, if one does not have the resources to be competitive for college, what's the purpose and truly begs the question: to whom are you actually seeking to help?

I know several recipients of these stipends and they are all great people, it's quite tremendous to see what they have done with the opportunities presented to them!

The Region; Stipend Helps Students Aim for College; Underprivileged Santa Ana juniors get $150 a month to aid them in focusing on studies.; [HOME EDITION]
by Joel Rubin, Los Angeles Times, Feb 02 04

Seventeen-year-old Isela Arias' ears perked up last October during a school counselor's lecture on college preparations.

Somewhere in the stressful discussion about the costs of admission exams and college applications, the woman mentioned an unusual new scholarship. It would provide $150 a month for underprivileged high school juniors in Santa Ana like herself who were determined to go to college.

Isela applied for the scholarship, recalling the endless teasing she had endured when her family arrived in Santa Ana from Mexico seven years ago and she struggled to learn English. She recalled her parents' sacrifices to provide the basics for their six children.

"We always had the essential things," she said. "But I know I can't be more of a weight on them. I know that I have to figure out a way to help myself."

This month, Isela and nine other high school juniors in the Santa Ana Unified School District will receive the first scholarship checks to help them focus on academics without the distraction of after-school jobs.

Financial aid experts say that, though countless scholarships exist for college-bound high school seniors, subsidizing younger students as they struggle toward higher education is unusual.

The benefactor is Newport Beach millionaire businessman Ron Simon, whose company constructs bathroom and kitchen counter tops for home builders. Simon said he was troubled that students from affluent families have an easier path to college than their poorer counterparts.

Money, he knew, bought students advantages such as private tutors, SAT-preparation classes and the luxury of not having to work.

He approached Santa Ana school administrators with the idea of leveling the playing field by supporting some of their promising students during their final two years of high school.

And with more than three-fourths of their 60,000 students poor enough to qualify for federal lunch subsidies, district officials leapt at the offer. Their high school students, said Supt. Al Mijares, often find it difficult to balance academics with the responsibility to assist their families.

"This is a special opportunity for some of our students who have the drive and ability to go to college but who may get caught up in the world of work." Mijares said. "It's a huge distraction. Everything suffers."

More than 200 students applied for the financial assistance. The stipend recipients were chosen by counselors and teachers for their success in overcoming barriers while pursuing academic goals.

They will receive $150 each month during their junior year and are lent a laptop computer and printer. For their senior year, the stipend increases to $250.

When the students enter college, Simon said, he intends to pay "a significant part" of their tuitions but has not determined how much.

Students are expected to spend the money to promote academic achievement. They are required to meet with their school counselors to discuss options, but ultimately, Simon said, the students have the freedom to decide whether to buy the latest graphing calculator, pay an exam fee or contribute to their family's grocery fund.

In return, juniors must maintain at least a 2.5 grade point average out of 4 and improve to a 3 by the start of their senior year. They cannot work more than 10 hours a week and must be eligible for the government's meal subsidy program, which is pegged to the national poverty line.

Simon emphasized that, though several students selected this year were excelling in the classroom, the scholarship was not intended necessarily to assist the smartest students or those with the best grades.

Instead, he said, he wanted to help kids whose potential might otherwise go untapped.

"The hope is to catch kids before they give up and to give them a chance," Simon said. "I want them to say, 'I have a chance to go to college.' "

Like Isela, Antonio De Jesus fit the profile. The soft-spoken son of two factory workers wakes up at 5:30 a.m. to catch two public buses to get to Century High School.

After school, Antonio, who hopes to be a surgeon, participates in an occupational training program for students interested in medicine. In the evenings, he helps his arthritic mother, who irons at a clothing factory, with cooking and cleaning before starting his homework.

Antonio was considering taking a job before receiving the scholarship.

The money will help tremendously as he pursues plans to attend UC Irvine and medical school, he said.

"My parents earn minimum wage," he said. "They wouldn't be able to give me the money that the scholarship does."

About half a million high school seniors and college undergraduates receive more than $1 billion from privately funded scholarships each year, according to Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of FinAid.org. But Kantrowitz and other financial aid experts said they knew of few scholarships directed at high school juniors and applauded the idea.

"The further down into the high school experience that you grab hold of the students and get them to think about life after high school, the better," said Jean Danielson, a director at the National Scholarship Providers Assn.

Stipends in a similar program for low-income Philadelphia students made a significant impact on their ability to succeed academically, said Davido Dupree, a member of a University of Pennsylvania-affiliated research team. The study also concluded that junior-year students took better advantage of the money than freshmen and sophomores.

Simon said he hoped to expand his scholarships to other Orange County districts and to sponsor 100 new students each year. For that to happen, he said, he expects each year's recipients to mentor younger students and encourage them to apply.

Several in this inaugural year said they were eager to do so to help others -- and as a thank-you to their benefactor.

"It's like a blessing," said Ariana Lugo, another recipient. "It is going to make our lives easier."

A Tour of Historically Black Colleges

One of two $50 donations I will making this year is to this program (and the other, though not important to this discussion, is for the Memorial Stadium improvements). As an Asian-American living in California, it is easy to understand the appeal of attending a college that is largely represented by others in your ethnicity since CSUs and UCs are within driving distance and throughout the state; it must be difficult, especially for Blacks from disadvantaged backgrounds, to tour these campuses and make the right decision.

Students Look for Inspiration on College Tour: 15 Berkeley Tech students explore black universities
By Susa Lim, Daily News Correspondent, Nov 14 06

As many high school seniors prepare their college applications for impending deadlines, students from Berkeley Technology Academy will embark Wednesday on a first-ever tour of five of the nation's historically black colleges.

Fifteen Berkeley Tech students will participate in the 18th annual Fall Black College Tour along with about 50 other high school students from around the nation. They will visit Clark Atlanta University, Morehouse College, Spelman College, Oakwood College and Alabama A&M University.

Berkeley Tech principal Victor Diaz hopes the school's inaugural trip will motivate his students to make their college dreams a reality. More than half of Berkeley Tech's students are black.

"These kids have never been on a college campus before. So through this, it would change their perspective. If they see students similar to them, they will be inspired," Diaz said.

Students had to fulfill many requirements from the beginning of the school year to qualify for the trip: keep an 80 percent attendance rate without unexcused absences and a minimum 2.5 grade point average, enroll in a weekly Scholastic Aptitude Test prep course and register for the SAT.

Students raised money for the trip through weekend carwashes, after-school bake sales, raffle tickets sales and personal contributions totaling $5,600. Berkeley Public Education Foundation, a community advocacy group, donated $6,500, while the Berkeley school board approved a grant for $2,660 and principal Diaz donated $1,000. The entire five-day trip costs $15,760.

Many on the tour will be the first in their immediate family to visit a historically black college. For some, it will be their first time flying.

"I'm going to ask everyone to pray for me," said senior Brianna Williams, 17. "I've been to L.A., Disneyland, New Mexico, but we drove to those places."

Brianna, a former Berkeley High student, hopes to major in journalism at Clark Atlanta and aspires to be a novelist. She went from a 0.5 grade-point average at Berkeley High and quitting school for personal reasons to maintaining a 4.0 at Berkeley Tech. She recently took the SAT at her old school.

Senior John Howard, 17, also recently took the SAT. He said before he started Berkeley Tech this fall, he had no clue how to apply for college. The former Berkeley High student credits Berkeley Tech's smaller classes, SAT prep courses and caring counselors for his success in passing the math portion of the state high-school exit exam - after his third try - as well as his decision to enroll in college. It was the low number of black students - compared to other students in Berkeley pursuing college - that inspired him to work hard toward admissions.

"At Berkeley High, when I took the SAT, I saw the room with predominately whites and Asians, and that motivated me," John said. "We need to get more African Americans in here."

Carl Raye, 62, tour founder and a Tuskegee University graduate, agrees.

Raye organized and funded the first trip in 1987 for four male students because he felt young black males lacked the role models he had when he grew up. As someone raised during segregation, Raye noticed a steep decline in interactions between black youth and teachers of the same color since integration.

"A lot of kids don't get to see black role models, but when they go to the campus, they see a lot of students and professors that look like them," Raye said. "It builds self-confidence and lets them be proud of who they are."

Since he began guiding tours, Raye has visited universities with more than 2,000 students.

Beginning of the End to Early Decision

It's about time. Early Action clearly is the better choice for most, and affords similar information to institutions as Early Decision.

The Nation; Harvard Urges Others to End Early Admissions; The president says the policies are problematic. Some top schools say they'll review theirs;

by Rebecca Trounson and Larry Gordon, Los Angeles Times, Sept. 13 06

Harvard's president said Tuesday that the university's decision to end early admissions was aimed in part at tamping down the growing frenzy over how students gain entrance to the nation's top institutions.

In announcing the decision, Harvard said such programs tended to benefit more-affluent students at the expense of minorities and the poor.

"The college admissions process has become too pressured, too complex and too vulnerable to public cynicism," said Harvard's interim president, Derek Bok. "We hope that doing away with early admissions will improve the process and make it simpler and fairer."

The change will take effect next fall for those seeking entrance in fall 2008. Harvard plans to reconsider the decision if the academic quality of applicants suffers as a result.

Although other prestigious universities have fine-tuned their programs in recent years, Harvard is believed to be first among the nation's top-tier institutions to eliminate early admissions.

Harvard urged other universities to follow suit, but it was not clear Tuesday how many would do so soon. Officials at Yale and Stanford said that they would review their policies, but that they had no immediate plans to change.

Early-admissions policies have existed for at least 20 years, but their use has been increasingly criticized as giving an unfair benefit to students at elite private and wealthy public high schools whose families and counselors tend to be savvy about college admissions.

Several hundred of the most competitive campuses offer a form of it; some accept a third or more of their freshman classes early. Other major schools, including USC and the University of California, do not use it.

Under the programs, high school students try to increase their chances of being admitted by applying early in their senior year. By December, months before other applicants, they learn whether they have been accepted, rejected or deferred until the regular admissions cycle in the spring.

Harvard, Stanford and Yale, among others, use a nonbinding form of early admission known as "early action," in which students apply and are accepted early but are not required to decide until spring of their senior year where they will attend. This allows them time to consider other admission and financial aid offers.

Other schools, including Princeton University and Pomona College, use a more controversial form known as "early decision," in which applicants must commit to attending.

Richard H. Shaw, Stanford's dean of admission and financial aid, said Stanford would study Harvard's action but would "make its own decision" on the matter.

Lloyd Thacker, executive director of the Education Conservancy, a Portland, Ore.-based group that advocates such reforms in college admissions, said Harvard's example would be influential.

"The ripple effects are going to be big and most welcome," he predicted.

Early applications are promoted as "a gimmick" to help students when in fact they are "institutional strategic weapons by schools to manage their image," said Thacker, a former high school counselor. He contended that campuses seek to lock in top students in hopes of scoring high in such rankings as the ones in U.S. News & World Report.

One of the most outspoken advocates of early admissions is Lee Stetson, admissions dean at the University of Pennsylvania, who in a statement called the process "very successful" for the school and its students.

Many high school counselors applauded Harvard's action.

Stephen Williams, college counselor at Eagle Rock High School, said many area public school students didn't come from families with college-going experience and didn't start the application process in time for early decisions. "This will help even the playing fields," he said.

Hector Martinez, director of college guidance at the private Webb Schools in Claremont, also was pleased, saying dropping early applications would help ease the pressure that so many of his high- achieving students felt at the very start of their senior years.

"Maybe the kids will have a normal senior year and concentrate on learning and having a good experience in high school instead of starting college applications in the summer," he said. Too many students apply early not because they are ready to make a campus choice but because they are anxious about being left behind and don't want the stress to linger into the spring, he said.

Cambridge High School Integration

This is the appendix to a full report that can be accessed at: http://www.ed.gov/admins/comm/choice/choiceprograms/programs_pg11.html. That a child can grow up and not be exposed to diversity on a daily basis is the choice of certain individuals, often times (whether knowingly or coincidental) by parents, but sometimes one's condition is institutionalized. Cambridge, a liberal and intellectual hotbed, is at the forefront in education equality, and tries to combat social problems at the critical point of childhood development.

Innovations in Education: Creating Strong District School Choice Programs

In Massachusetts, certainly, and in much of the country,if you say "Cambridge," the automatic association is "Harvard." For some, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Radcliffe will also come to mind. This image of ivy walls, privilege, and academic achievement does not carry over to the city's one high school and 12 K-8 schools, however. Instead, the Cambridge Public School District serves a bifurcated student population, half affluent and half impoverished. While many students have family ties to the academic core of the community or live in private homes with an average value of over a million dollars, many others qualify for subsidized meals, live in public housing projects, or are homeless.

Although district administrators concede that the local housing pattern has largely eliminated the middle class, diversity has been actively sought in Cambridge schools since 1980, when the district voluntarily instituted school choice. Currently, the district's struggle is to maximize options that encourage students to stay in the district and to excel. Cambridge faces fierce competition for its students from private schools, a growing number of independent charter schools, and Catholic high schools.

A controlled choice plan was implemented in 1980 to create racial diversity in all of the district's schools. The plan worked to an extent, but all children were not receiving the same educational experience. Therefore, the district reviewed the plan in 2000 by asking a cross-functional team that included the superintendent to examine education research, relevant case law, and data from the district. The purpose of the study was to determine:

• the effectiveness of the strategies used to recruit students to various schools,
• which schools were overchosen and which were underchosen, and
• why a school was consistently underchosen.

The team recommended that the district try to eliminate the high concentrations of poverty in specific schools through changes in the controlled choice plan. Beginning with the 2002-03 school year, Cambridge enhanced its strategies to recruit students to schools, implemented improvement processes for the schools that were not meeting student achievement goals or drawing diverse student populations, and instituted socioeconomic status as a factor in assigning students to schools.

The district is working to improve its communication with parents about optimal school placements. For example, the district is increasing the role of its Family Resource Center, which, in addition to referring families to a wide range of social services, helps with school registration, logistics, counseling, after-school placements, and transition programs for students needing extra academic support.

The district also sponsors an annual kindergarten tour, encouraging parents or prospective kindergartners to visit any number of schools, observe, ask questions, and consider the benefits of different placements for their children. To increase the number of low-income parents who take advantage of the tour, the district now sends the director of the Family Resource Center to local Head Start facilities to inform parents about their school choice options and to recruit them for the kindergarten tour.

The district's "junior kindergarten" pilot program at two schools, designed in collaboration with the Harvard Graduate School of Education, is another initiative to increase the number of low-income students attending high-achieving and predominantly high-income schools. The purpose of the program is to give an academic boost to children who might otherwise enter kindergarten unprepared for elementary school work; low-income parents may enroll their four- and five-year-olds no matter where in the district they reside. The only stipulation is that parents keep their children at the school for their subsequent year of regular kindergarten. The hope, of course, is that these children will feel comfortable, competent, and welcome at the school and will stay on through the elementary grades.

In parallel with efforts to motivate the enrollment of low-income students more evenly across the district, Cambridge is working to improve the appeal of its underselected, low-income schools, hoping to attract high-income students to choose them and further contribute to income diversification across the district.

One of the district schools avoided by upper-income parents is the Tobin School, which, with a population three times the district average has also failed to meet AYP standards. Tobin has established a volunteer relationship with MIT and Harvard, has a strong parent-mentor group in technology and science fields, and has won a grant to create a science and technology magnet program at the school. The principal reports that although affluent parents are not yet choosing Tobin, the emphasis on science has made Tobin a better school, and students' achievement scores have improved.

Cambridge has identified its particular challenges and is now moving forward with increased focus, new programs,and districtwide goals to leave no child behind.

the University of California, Los Angeles Changes Admissions Policies

UCLA concedes that the number of Black students on campus is too low and does not fairly represent the population of California. The university has placed the blame squarely on the shoulders of Admissions; subsequent action (and inaction) suggests that the school already receives an adequate amount of talented, Black applicants. To change admissions policies w/o any other provisions is merely revising current standards to accept an acceptable amount of Black students to campus from the existing applicant pool who should/would have gotten into UCLA (a charge less outrageous if one considers that the school receives more freshmen applications than any other university in America). There does not seem to be an effort to attract and retain more Black students to campus, which should be the focus following this fallout. More needs to be done.

UCLA Agrees to 'Holistic' Approach to Admissions; No longer will students' academic and personal files be read by separate reviewers. Concern over a drop in black students helped spur change.
by Rebecca Trounson, Los Angeles Times, September 29, 2006

UCLA announced Thursday that it will shift immediately to a more "holistic" student admissions process, much like UC Berkeley's, in which all facets of each applicant can be considered at once by admissions reviewers.

The change, which was driven partly by campus and community concerns over declining numbers of African American students at UCLA, will be in effect for students applying in November for the 2007-08 school year. Admissions officials said that students should not try to tailor their application to fit the new process.

Some details remain to be worked out, but the announcement came after the third of three faculty panels, all of which had to approve the plan, endorsed it this week. The move had been expected; the revisions have been strongly backed by acting Chancellor Norman Abrams and key faculty leaders.

Abrams said Thursday he was delighted with the vote, which he believes will lead to fairer admissions for all UCLA applicants.

"I am convinced that this will be a better process overall, and I think it will improve the quality of our student body," said Abrams, a veteran UCLA law professor who became acting chancellor July 1.

He and other UCLA officials emphasized, however, that the campus will continue to abide by restrictions imposed by Proposition 209, the 1996 voter initiative that barred California's public colleges and universities from considering race in admissions or employment. And they said they do not know what effect the changes will have on admissions numbers for African American students or any other group.

Abrams and several faculty members said that for more than a year, UCLA's faculty, which sets admissions standards for the campus, had been considering a switch to a model similar to Berkeley's, in which individual readers are allowed to review all parts of an applicant's file.

At UCLA, in what admissions officials have described as an effort to increase objectivity, applicants' files were divided into academic and personal areas, and read by separate reviewers.

But the officials said a major impetus for change came in June, with the release of figures showing that only 96 African Americans - - 2% of the freshman class -- were likely to enroll at UCLA this fall. The numbers, the lowest at the campus since at least 1973, prompted calls from alumni, students and community leaders for an overhaul of UCLA's admissions practices.

Adrienne Lavine, an engineering professor and the outgoing chairwoman of UCLA's faculty senate, said the changes will allow the campus to consider each student's academic achievements in the context of the opportunities available to them in high school, and in light of their family circumstances.

She and others said that was increasingly important, given that more than 47,000 students applied for this year's freshman class.

Jenny Sharpe, an English professor who is chairwoman of the faculty's admissions committee, said the panel also has been working on guidelines for readers that will underline UCLA's mission as a public university and help define the kinds of students it wants.

She said many specifics remain to be worked out, but among the changes being considered is that applicants' essays or personal statements will be read not merely for informational purposes -- as she said they have been until now -- but for evidence of other qualities, including creative thinking and problem-solving.

"We didn't use them to try to get at who the student was, because we weren't able to treat them as individuals," she said. "We will now."

Teach for America

The article below was featured on the front page of Fortune Magazine, making Teach for America the first non-profit organization to make it to the cover of that magazine (Fortune and non-profit, quite contradictory, no?). As you can clearly see, the program has thrived on effective fundraising and recruiting efforts; much of the success is a quite unabashed attempt at targeting students at elite universities and major corporations, but such is the audience TFA has geared itself towards- it provides one model for success in the non-profit, education world.

Teach for America Recruits Top Students for Education Reform: Schooling Corporate Giants on Recruiting