Scholarships

As the first White House Summit on Community Colleges was being held in October, the first recipients of the Hartford Foundation’s new Community College Scholarship Program were learning their way around campus.

The Community College Scholarship Program joins an extensive college scholarship program at the Hartford Foundation that awarded nearly $1.2 million in 2010 for new and continuing scholarships to more than 630 local students at two-year and four-year colleges and universities both in Connecticut and nationwide.

In the coming years, jobs requiring at least an associate degree are projected to grow twice as fast as jobs requiring no college experience. We will not fill those jobs – or keep those jobs on our shores – without the training offered by community colleges. President Barack Obama

The White House summit brought together community college administrators, faculty, and students, business and philanthropic leaders, as well as federal and state policy leaders to discuss how to achieve President Obama’s goal of leading the world with the highest proportion of college graduates by 2020, including an additional 5 million community college graduates.

To encourage Greater Hartford high school seniors to continue their education at community colleges – and advance job training opportunities – the Foundation’s Community College Scholarship Program awarded 13 scholarships in its first year. up to 15 scholarships will be awarded in the second and third years of the pilot program. As an incentive to complete an associate’s degree, the awards will increase for each of the three years, from $750, to $800, to $1,000. If the student completes community college in two years, the award for the next year will be available to attend a four-year institution.

Students must meet the following criteria:

• Be a graduating high school senior who attends school in or lives in Greater Hartford.
• Be entering a community college within Greater Hartford with a minimum enrollment of six credits (two courses).
• Have financial need.
• Be a volunteer in the community, school, or other extracurricular activities (may include jobs).

Recipients may be enrolled in either certificate or associate’s degree programs, with preference given to students seeking associate’s degrees. The scholarship could also assist students needing remedial classes.

This pilot program is designed to help students address two other key issues: completion and debt, said Nancy M. Woodward, who directs the Hartford Foundation Scholarship Program.

“Many students at two-year schools are leaving with high levels of debt and often no associate’s degree. Only one in five who enroll in a two-year program earn an associate’s degree within three years. This new program is designed to help ease some of that burden.”

There are currently 97 funds at the Foundation devoted specifically to scholarships, including eight created during 2010.

And many donors have supported the Foundation’s General Scholarship Endowment Fund throughout the years with all levels of contributions. In 2010, contributions to all scholarship funds exceeded $261,000.

Scholarship funds at the Hartford Foundation were created by people and organizations of all types and from throughout Greater Hartford. Their situations vary greatly, but they all share one motivation – to help students from this community afford a college education.

Many individuals also contribute their time by serving on the Foundation’s scholarship committees. They interview scholarship applicants, attend college fairs, and assist with the selection of recipients.

The Foundation now provides scholarships in four ways:

General Scholarship Endowment Fund, which pools donors’ contributions and awards scholarships of $3,000 to graduating high school seniors attending four-year colleges. These awards are renewable for up to four years and – in addition to tuition, fees, room and board – students can now use the scholarships to purchase textbooks. In 2010, 184 students received new or renewal awards.

Individual scholarship funds, which allows donors to work with the Foundation in establishing selection criteria and award amounts. These scholarships help a variety of students from traditional-aged to graduate students. In 2010, 205 students received awards from these funds, with an average of $1,622.

Grants to community colleges for scholarships, with $210,000 awarded to Asnuntuck Community College, Capital Community College, Charter Oak State College, Goodwin College, and Manchester Community College, for 201 students with an average award of $1,030.

Block grants specifically to support students transferring from community to four-year colleges. In 2010, the Foundation awarded $750,000 to the University of Connecticut-Hartford Campus, University of Hartford and Central Connecticut State University for 32 students with an average award of $2,344.

Recipients of Hartford Foundation scholarships come from all of the towns in the Greater Hartford region, with the highest number of recipients from Hartford. The recipients were honored in June during the sixth annual Scholarship Recipient Reception held at Saint Joseph College in West Hartford.

For more information about the Foundation’s scholarship program, call Nancy Woodward at 860-548-1888 or visit www.hfpg.org/scholarships.