STRITCH RECEIVES $70K GRANT TO SUPPORT COLLEGE PREP PROGRAM FOR ELEMENTARY-AGE STUDENTS
posted Jan. 18, 2011
Cardinal Stritch University has received a $70,000 grant from the Great Lakes Higher Education Guaranty Corporation on behalf of the Wisconsin College Access Challenge Grant Program to support the Stritch Center for Opportunities and Promise in Education (SCOPE) Prep Program, a pre-college program designed to engage elementary-age students in activities that build their interest in attending college.
The program, which replicates the PEOPLE (Pre-College Enrichment Opportunity Program for Learning Excellence) Prep initiative that began in 2005 at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, was created to help reverse recent statistics which indicate that low-income, first generation college students are nearly four times less likely to continue with higher education after their first year, with only 11% earning a bachelor’s degree within six years.
The program also aligns with the goals of the School of Urban Initiatives, which is part of Stritch’s College of Education and Leadership, to initiate collaboration and sustain growth in urban communities, serving those populations that would otherwise not be served.
The program will be housed at the Green Tree Teutonia Community Learning Center, 3744 W. Green Tree Road. It will be a part of Stritch’s School of Urban Initiatives and will be overseen by program director Tonya Mantilla. The grant will be used to pay student stipends and University-funded work-study hours, as well as curriculum resources and technology.
During the spring of 2011, the SCOPE Prep Program will serve 25 students at the Green Tree Teutonia Community Learning Center during a 10-week mentor/tutoring program that meets two nights per week. Fifteen students from the Urban Fellows Program run by Stritch’s Center for Calling and Engagement, which provides undergraduate students with field placement and service learning internships each year, will serve as mentor/tutors. Program participants will be drawn primarily from within the existing housing development, home to more than 170 eligible children aged 6 through 14.
The program also includes two events on Stritch’s main campus at the beginning and end of the program. The kick-off visit will include a celebration where students will be given a SCOPE Prep T-shirt, dinner in the dining hall with their mentor and a choice of several activities that students and mentors can sign up for, including a science project, a tour of the dorms, a music performance, a visit to the Northwestern Mutual Art Gallery, attending a Stritch Wolves athletic event, a tour of the campus radio station, and more. The year-end celebration will include awards designed by the Urban Fellows and will invite both children and their parents to campus for a celebratory meal and hands-on activities.