No Waiting Necessary. Promise.

September 28, 2015September 28, 2015 / Promise / Leave a comment

We get inquiries. They come from everywhere — Utah, Louisiana, Missouri, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Texas and many more. And there is a recurring theme from those in cities, big, mid-sized and small. “How can we get started when we don’t have a major funder?”

It goes against what some believe what Promise programs are, but I like to tell them that they don’t need money in hand to start a program. Folks in Ontario, Calif., are proof. In fact, that photo above is proof.

That’s one of the crowded FAFSA Workshops hosted by the Ontario-Montclair School District last year when the school system helped 611 families fill out the federal aid form. Given that 86 percent of the students in the district come from low-income households, that initiative probably generated about $2.5 million in scholar dollars.

But that’s not all that happens in the district. The Ontario-Montclair Promise Scholars program was founded as a three-school pilot program in 1999 with the goal of helping students be successful in a global society by increasing high school completion and college going rates.

The city — located just East of the Los Angeles County line — has been plagued by hopelessness, but the pilot program forged ahead, working with students and families in fifth grade and up to ensure awareness, aspiration and success.

For 10 years the program tracked those students, who had benefitted from existing and modified programs already in place. When James Q. Hammond came to OMSD as the new superintendent in 2010, he looked at the data and, in the name of social and educational justice, expanded the program to every district school.

There had always been a focus on PELL Grants for those eligible and children meeting the prerequisites of the program were guaranteed admission to nearby Chaffey Community College upon graduation, but the Class of 2016 will be the first to have additional need-based tuition assistance and options at other local colleges and universities. Executive Director Leslie Sorensen expects about 700 students to enroll.

The district’s partnership includes the Inland Empire United Way, the City of Ontario, its Chamber of Commerce and an array of businesses, non-profits and citizens. And all 2,200 fifth graders — the Class of 2023 — have a guaranteed place in college (Chaffey Community College, California State University-Bakersfield, California State University-San Bernardino, Cal Poly Pomona or University of La Verne) and years of preparation ahead to fulfill the dream.

You want to guess who’s been watching? The White House, that’s who. Just a few weeks ago, in honor of the celebration of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics’ 25th anniversary, the Ontario-Montclair Promise Scholars — who are about 90 percent Hispanic — were recognized as one of the nation’s “Bright Spots in Hispanic Education.”

And that was well-earned.

The La Crosse Investment

September 25, 2015September 25, 2015 / Promise / Leave a comment

If tomorrow a rule came down that Promise programs could no longer use the word ‘Promise,’ what would be the replacement? In my mind, one word sums up the initiative: investment. The Pittsburgh Investment. Or the New Haven Investment.

The word comes up a lot. How many funders have heard, “It is critical that business invests in the community?” Or Promise Scholars working too many hours in a low-wage job, “You need to protect this investment!”

But up in La Crosse, Wis., the word has even deeper meaning. Recipients of the La Crosse Promise aren’t just required to live within city limits, they must invest in the city’s most challenged neighborhoods.

“We’re trying to attract market-rate homes … into [high-poverty] neighborhoods,” said Jerilyn Dinsmoor, executive director of the La Crosse Promise. “That way, we’re not leaving vacant homes and forgetting about a community … The health of the downtown affects the entire region. The more we can revitalize the core, the better for the entire region.”

Three anonymous donors have provided funds to offer $25,000 and $50,000 college scholarships to 30 families who move to two of La Crosse’s low-income neighborhoods adjacent to downtown.

Writes Malcolm Burnley of Next City:

In order to qualify, a family must agree to invest enough money into a home to raise the home value well above market rate (specifically, by putting $50,000 worth of renovations into a home assessed at under $150,000, or paying $150,000 in construction costs on a brand-new home).

In May, Justin Wolfers of the New York Times detailed two studies the demonstrated that “neighborhoods — their schools, community, neighbors, local amenities, economic opportunities and social norms — are a critical factor shaping your children’s outcomes.”

This is one investment worth watching.

A Neighborhood Turnaround

September 22, 2015September 22, 2015 / Promise / Leave a comment

Back in May, Lizette Alvarez of the New York Times focused on a man who grew up in a low-income neighborhood of the Lower Eastside in the 1950s.

Harris Rosen was the first person in his family to go to college, earning his 1961 degree from Cornell University’s renown School of Hotel Administration. Back to Gotham he went, serving as a convention salesman at the Waldorf Astoria.

Eventually he found himself in the convention capitol of the United States — Orlando, Fla. — where he’d turn a single highway hotel into an empire.

More than a decade ago, he donated the site for the University of Central Florida’s Rosen College of Hospitality Management. But that isn’t his most meaningful contribution to education. His impact on the community of Tangelo Park will be his greatest legacy.

In 1993 Rosen came to the troubled neighborhood for a school visit and asked a group of children how many wanted to go to college. “Two or three hands went up,” he remembered. He made a commitment to a change, inherently believing that the neighborhood’s best answer to crime and hopelessness was education.

In two decades, he has poured more than $10 million into the 3,000-resident Tangelo Park. In a community which once saw more than half of its young people drop out of school, there have been nearly 500 Rosen Scholars since. In the most informal way, his generous scholarships pay for tuition and fees, room and board, books and travel for those students who attend in-state public schools. There is no staff for the Tangelo Park Program. Volunteers — and Rosen himself — take care of the needs.

Residents credit Rosen’s investment with a thorough transformation of the neighborhood. “We are sitting on gold her now,” said Jeroline Adkinson, a resident and president of the Tangelo Park Civic Association. Where once so many would drop out of high school, now 20 of the 25 graduates from the Class of 2015 claimed their Rosen Scholarship.

In My Mind, I’m Going To Carolina

September 17, 2015September 18, 2015 / Promise / 1 Comment

We’ve been writing about this since January, but now we can officially say it — Welcome and congratulations, Guilford County!

Say Yes To Education — founded by George Weiss in 1987 in Philadelphia — made the official announcement today that Guilford County, which is home to both Greensboro and High Point, is its newest partner.

Led locally by the Guilford Education Alliance, the Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro, the High Point Community Foundation and Guilford County Schools, the region has already raised $32.5 million toward its $70 million goal to fund the endowment for last-dollar tuition scholarships. The district — which has a whopping 72,000 students — is comprised of largely low-income and minority students.

“They often have the smarts, they have the GPA, but the money is not there,” said Felicia Andrews, a parent and local Say Yes organizer.

The current class of seniors — more than 5,000 in total — will be eligible for the funds, although details regarding scholarship eligibility are still being finalized. More than 100 private colleges and universities are part of the Say Yes Higher Education Compact, which also serves students from Say Yes programs in both Buffalo and Syracuse.

Why Guilford County? “We had roughly 130 different cities and counties that we looked at, and we winnowed the list down to literally three, and Guilford County just blew everybody out of the ballpark,” Weiss told Katie Arcieri of the Triad Business Journal. “What made the county stand out? Every time we had a board meeting, Guilford County was just shining like a star. There was really no discussion. What we need is people to put aside their differences and just help the kids, and that’s what Guilford County did.”

So it was easy to say yes.