Dick Daniel is on a mission to give away hundreds of
thousands of dollars in scholarships to Delaware County students. The offer has
few strings attached, yet the sweet deal has been a hard sell for the 20 years
that the Twenty-First Century Scholars program has been in existence. "It's
baffling," admits Daniel, former Muncie Central High School principal and now
community scholarship liaison for Project Leadership. "It seems like a slam
dunk. Kids fulfill a five-part pledge-which is very easy-and then they get
tuition and fees for four years of college. Who wouldn't do that?"
The answer has eluded educators since the statewide initiative was introduced in 1990. Aimed at low-income families, the program requires students to enroll during their sixth-, seventh- or eighth-grade year and sign a good citizenship pledge. The agreement stipulates that participating Scholars will graduate from high school, maintain a 2.0 grade point average, avoid drugs and alcohol, apply to an Indiana college or university, and submit the necessary financial aid paperwork.
Because enrollment in the Scholars program historically has been low, Grant County created Project Leadership three years ago to encourage participation, raise high school graduation rates and boost students' readiness for college. Results have been so encouraging that Project Leadership spread to Delaware County last March with funding provided by several area organizations. A Foundation grant of $51,000 is supporting a mentoring component that matches ninth-grade Scholars with adult role models from the community.
"Initially we hope to recruit 25 to 30 mentors," says Julie McGee, who joined Project Leadership in December as its graduation coach. Freshmen aren't required to have mentors, but "word of mouth sells the program," she explains. "Each year Grant County gets more kids interested because students talk to each other and say how helpful their mentors are and how much fun they have together. Eventually we want to enlist as many mentors as we have students who request them."
The first hurdle in launching Project Leadership in Delaware County was to make the 1,700 eligible families aware of the opportunity and secure students' signatures on the required pledge. "When I started, only 27 percent of the eligible population had signed on," recalls Daniel. "Four months later we were just shy of 50 percent. We ended up with about 77 percent of the eighth graders. That's important because June 30th is the last day an eighth grader can enroll."
Daniel's success was due in part to his willingness to explore every available means of reaching potential participants and their families. With support from the Twenty-First Century Scholars regional office, he sent letters to parents, visited schools, spoke at convocations, met with students one on one, and hosted "family nights" to explain the scholarship opportunity. Attendance sometimes was disappointing, but he refused to be discouraged. He recalls one evening event that attracted only 20 of the estimated 400 families that were eligible. Undeterred, he focused on the possibilities.
"If I get 20 kids to sign up for a $30,000 scholarship," he says, "I've just given $600,000 in scholarship money that potentially could come back to our community if the students choose to attend Ball State or Ivy Tech or if they continue to live in Delaware County after they graduate."
His passion for the program is genuine. When he feels it's appropriate, he shares his personal story to illustrate the importance of education. A high school dropout, "I made a lot of bad choices when I was young," he says. Only after he completed a GED, served in the military and returned to the classroom to earn multiple college degrees did he find success. He's careful not to suggest that mistakes made as a teen are easy to rectify as an adult. "I don't emphasize that I'm a high school dropout who became principal of the school I dropped out of," he says. Instead, he stresses how limited his career choices were until he set goals that included post-secondary education.
Project Leadership plans to track participating students to determine if the initiative is successful in keeping Scholars in school and guiding them toward college. Early statistics from Grant County indicate that Scholars who are matched with mentors are more than likely to stay in the program. "The kids who started three years ago in Grant County are now second semester juniors," notes Daniel. "In June of next year we'll be able to ask, 'OK, how did the class of 2011 do?' 'How well did the mentored students do?' 'How many area kids are headed to college?' The proof will be in the pudding, as the old saying goes."
