13th Year Promise Scholarship - Spring 2009

UPDATE: The 13th Year Promise Scholarship completed its inaugural year. Twenty students from Cleveland High School enrolled at South Seattle Community College. The powerful combination of tuition assistance and support services resulted in an impressive fall-spring retention rate of 85% for the 13th Year students compared to 65% for the general student population. Complete information is available in the 13th Year First Year Results (PDF).

South Seattle Community College and the college’s Foundation launched the “13th Year Promise Scholarship” in 2007. Based on data from the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges that highlights the enormous difference that one year of college makes in students’ life success, this innovative program was developed to guarantee that all Cleveland High School students have the opportunity to attend college tuition-free for one year.   This program began as a pilot for the 2008 class of Cleveland High School and was recently extended for three additional years through the class of 2011.

This program was primarily designed to increase access to higher education for under-served students as well as expose high school to the college environment and educate them on how to prepare to succeed there. Our first quarter results have shown the incredible difference that the 13th Year Scholarship has already made!  For example:

• More than 50% (n=52) of the entire Cleveland High School class of 2008 for the 13th Year Promise Scholarship! The class of 2009 expressed similar interest; 45 students applied for the scholarship.
• Twenty students enrolled in South Seattle Community College for fall quarter 2008 as part of this scholarship. This is twice as many students than have enrolled from Cleveland High School in previous years.
• The fall-winter retention rate of the 13th Year Scholarship students was an impressive 90% compared to the 69% fall-winter retention rate for the general South student population!   The 13th Year students had a fall-spring retention rate of 85% compared to 65% for South’s general student population.

Enormous Gains

The 13th Year Promise Scholarship is making enormous gains in increasing number of students who can realize their dreams through higher education.  And while South is incredibly proud of opportunities that have been provided to students, and the community, through the 13th Year Promise Scholarship, we’re setting the bar higher to encourage students not just to attend college, but to take full advantage of the available resources so they can reach their potential.  Fortunately as part of this pilot project, South has identified the following areas that could use additional focus.

• Students struggled to complete the requirements to fully realize all of the Financial Aid opportunities.  The process is extremely complex, and these difficulties are increased when we consider that a majority of the 13th Year students are the first in their families to attend college and come from families where English is not the first language spoken in the home.  Additional resources to provide one-on-one support could help.
• The 13th Year students arrived at South somewhat under-prepared for college. While 95% of students began taking some college-level coursework immediately, just over 30% were ready for college-level English and math.  College readiness is a pervasive issue through community colleges and is often exacerbated by socioeconomic barriers.  Plans are underway to better align the curriculum at South and Cleveland High School as well as increase pre-college readiness programs, such as summer courses.

Progress

We’re excited about our progress with the 13th Year Promise Scholarship thus far – and look forward to working more with students and Cleveland High School to increase college preparedness.  We’ll undertake the following:

• Collect and analyze additional data as the students progress in their educational journey. Use data gathered this year to adjust the 13th Year Promise Scholarship, if needed, for incoming students.
• Continue to provide student support services such as mentoring, advising and tutoring.
• Encourage current Cleveland High School students to become excited and ready for college – and apply for 13th Year Promise Scholarship!
• Solicit advice from leaders in education, industry, government and the community.
• Identify funding sources to support sustaining and expanding the 13th Year Promise Scholarship. A $1 million endowment would sustain the 13th Year Promise Scholarship in perpetuity and a $5 million endowment would enable South to extend the 13th Year Promise Scholarship to the other high schools, Chief Sealth and West Seattle, in our service area.

For more information contact:
Elizabeth A. Pluhta, CFRE
Director of Development, South Seattle Community College
Executive Director, South Seattle Community College Foundation
206.763.5141
epluhta@sccd.ctc.edu