Richmond Standard

The Richmond Promise — a scholarship program for students in Richmond, Calif. — is looking for its founding executive director.

From the Richmond Standard:

The leadership role packs an annual salary range of $90,000 to $150,000. The person hired will lead an effort to ensure every college-going high school senior who lives in Richmond gets a $1,500 annual boost to attend college for up to four years, as mandated by council. The person must also launch fundraising efforts in order to sustain and grow the program. At $1,500 annually per student, the program will last about eight years on the initial $35 million grant, city staff says.

Anyone interested should click here for details. Priority applications will be submitted by Dec. 18.

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There is a broad range of Promise programs, but there are a small number of large comprehensive programs that supply millions of dollars in scholarships each year. The Richmond Promise in California is about to join them.

The Chevron Corporation — which has committed $35 million in agreement with a $1 billion modernization of its Richmond refinery — recently handed over its first check, a large one of $8 million to get the Promise started. The first recipients are expected to be the rising high school seniors of the Class of 2016.

Richmond City Manager Bill Lindsay — who was part of a six-person exploratory team at PromiseNet in November — told the Richmond Standard that college readiness was going to be an important component to the programming. He also said that the city hoped to leverage the Chevron commitment into $150 million in additional funds from foundations and private individuals.

Community leaders and school officials have yet to determine how funds will be distributed, but there is a call to make college both “attainable and affordable” for the most possible students. Vice Mayor Jael Myrick — who led the charge for the Richmond Promise as a city councilor — called the opportunity “transformative” and “game-changing.”

“This is real; this is happening,” Myrick said. “We expect young people after high school to still be in school.”