Where A Free College Education is a Reality

October 8, 2015October 8, 2015 / Promise / Leave a comment

The cost of a college education is extraordinarily high and increasing each year. One in three college undergraduates now receives a Pell grant and many eligible low income students don’t even apply. Recent proposals have been made for new government programs to provide free college tuition for two years of community college. However, the opportunity for a free college education at one college has been a reality for decades.

I am president of Williamson College of the Trades, a small accredited postsecondary institution located on a 220-acre campus near Media, Pa. Williamson is a unique educational institution in several important respects. It is the only college in the country – other than the military academies – which provides full scholarships (tuition, room and board) to all of its 270 students. These three-year scholarships are valued at $81,000.

Unlike most colleges, Williamson receives no government aid. It relies entirely on income from its endowment and contributions for its continued support. Williamson’s students also do work around the campus, such as in the kitchen and on the grounds. While such activities help to reduce costs, they also promote a work ethic for the students. Students also give back by volunteering for community service projects. Williamson students helped out in Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina, built a clinic in the Dominican Republic and a Veterans Memorial in New Jersey.

Williamson was established in 1888 by Isaiah Vansant Williamson, a Philadelphia merchant and philanthropist, who endowed a free institution for the education of young men in skilled trades. For 127 years, Williamson has provided full scholarships for all of its students in a three-year residential educational program. Each year, 25 percent of qualified applicants are selected and 98 percent of those selected enroll. Preference in admission is given to young men who would not otherwise be able to pursue a college education due to their family’s financial circumstances. The average taxable family income per family member is under $5,500 a year for the current entering class.

Today, Williamson offers an Associate in Specialized Technology degree in power plant technology, machine tool technology, painting and coatings technology, construction technology (masonry and carpentry) and horticulture. Williamson has an enviable on-time graduation/completion rate of 75 percent, which far exceeds the completion rate of many colleges, especially community colleges. One key factor in the high graduation rate is that students and their families do not have the stress of figuring out how to pay tuition bills or need to incur any student loans.

Williamson College provides extensive support services, mentoring and counseling since most of its students are first-generation college students. In accordance with the expressed wishes of its founder and as part of its educational program, Williamson emphasizes the development of good character traits for its students, including a strong work ethic, excellence, persistence, self-discipline, determination and service.

For many years, including periods of adverse economic conditions, virtually all of Williamson College’s students have a career-related job upon graduation or pursue further education. At a recent career fair on the Williamson campus, 103 companies showed up to interview and attempt to hire 73 graduating seniors. Many of our students receive multiple job offers. One recent graduate in machine tool technology had nine job offers.

As new proposals for expanded student financial aid are evaluated, one important lesson from Williamson’s experience is that generous financial aid is often not enough to assure the success of first-generation college students. A more comprehensive approach that includes knowing and interacting with the students personally, instilling values and assuring a network of support are key factors in Williamson’s success rate.

Michael J. Rounds — a former U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel, West Point Assistant Professor, and Deputy Commandant of the United States Military Academy Preparatory School — became the 13th president of the Williamson Free School of Mechanical Trades on July 1, 2013.

Who’s Promise Is It?

October 6, 2015October 6, 2015 / Promise / Leave a comment

When a Promise program begins, there are all kinds of questions. Two of the most important ones are: “What are you trying to accomplish?” and “How can you ensure the money lasts?”

And while Promise scholarship dollars obviously benefit those who receive them, they can also be used to fortify a school system. Places like Kalamazoo, Mich., and New Haven, Conn., are quick to point out that enrollment in public schools have made a dramatic turn once a Promise is in place.

So last night in Richmond, Calif., the City Council was confronted with residents urging them to make Richmond Promise benefits available to charter and private school students. Those who were against a strict traditional public school element held signs and made pleas late into the evening.

Here’s one response — a single Promise program can’t do everything. What it can do is develop a culture and leave room for additional programs to be established by motivated individuals who feel the need to address a gap. The nation’s first Promise program — the Bernard Daly Scholarship Fund in Lake County, Ore. — began in 1922 and 18 years later others started a similar program focused on funding out-of-state students that the Daly Fund wouldn’t cover. Both programs still exist.

The issue hanging out there for the City Council, which has vowed to submit a final Richmond Promise Strategic Action Plan at its next meeting, is whether its Promise will be used as an incentive to bolster its public schools.

It’s a question that many places have faced, including down in Greensboro, N.C., where Say Yes To Education recently set up shop. Should a component of a Promise program’s mission be to uplift a city’s school system by investing in those who’ve invested in it?

The answer is not an easy one.

Higher Learning

October 3, 2015October 3, 2015 / Promise / Leave a comment

In November voters in the Mile High City will decide on a ballot measure to place a small addition to the city’s sales tax. If passed, the city will have $10 million annually specifically designed to help city students pay for college.

Two hours to the south, in Pueblo County, there is another tax on the ballot which would be for the benefit of young college students — a marijuana excise tax that would be levied in the transaction between the cultivation entity and the store.

When county commissioners met a month ago to determine whether to put the measure to voters, local retail marijuana growers showed up… to voice support!

“Contrary to popular belief we definitely do want to see a positive impact from our industry in the community,” said Richard Quessel of the Southern Colorado Growers Association, “and we feel this is a great responsible way to write that up.”

Under the plan detailed by Commissioner Sal Pace, a successful vote would create $3.5 million a year by 2010 and half of that would go toward a scholarship fund that would help defray college expenses for county graduates who attended either Colorado State University-Pueblo or Pueblo Community College.

Pace has said that the proposal is intended to “give Pueblo kids a boost.”

We can think of a few snarky names — be it the Pot Promise, the Ganga Guarantee, Pact 420 or the Cannabis Commitment — but we are more interested in seeing if this passes and what it will mean for other places.

A New Step — The Prep Pact?

September 30, 2015 / Promise / Leave a comment

Dr. Mike Richards, the President of the College of Southern Nevada, recently called the Promise movement “the most exciting thing happening in American higher education right now.”

Well, we happen to agree, but it is also the most innovative way to incentivize students to see a different path. And while the Promise movement has seen an array of funding options — from business, foundations, universities and even tax programs — there is a new one that is already here.

Take a look at the Phoenix Pact, which makes it possible for graduates of North Lawndale College Prep — a free, open-enrollment, public charter school located on Chicago’s Westside — to go to colleges where they are most likely to succeed, rather than colleges they can afford.

Starting with the class that graduated in the spring of 2015, the Phoenix Pact is, as President Barack Obama is fond of saying, “available for those who work for it.” Recipients must have at least a 3.0 grade-point average at NLCP, enroll full-time at an approved “Success College,” qualify for full Pell grant funding and meet satisfactory academic progress in college.

Officials at North Lawndale have been very committed to identify those “Success Colleges,” where students like the ones who graduate from NLCP have stronger chances of completion.

When the Phoenix Pact was announced this summer, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, who helped open the school nearly two decades ago, came back and told the audience:

“If you guys can start to prove there’s not just one amazing young person or one amazing teacher but systemically dozens of dozens of young people every single year (who) can graduate, and cannot just go to college but graduate from college on the back end, you start to let the nation know what’s possible. If you can create a model, the national implications are pretty big.”

Pretty big indeed.