Rose Meissner, Community Foundation of St. Joseph County president talks in 2019 about efforts to win a grant to boost usage of Indiana’s 21st Century Scholars program. Provided image
The Community Foundation of St. Joseph County has won a nearly $4.1 million grant aimed at boosting participation in a state of Indiana program that pays college tuition costs for low-income students, the nonprofit group announced Friday.
The foundation, having competed for the past two years with community foundations throughout the state for the Lilly Endowment grant, was excited to make the announcement. But now the real work begins: getting more students to enroll in and complete the state’s decades-old 21st Century Scholars program that gives free tuition at state-funded colleges.
Only about one in three of the county’s income-eligible students utilize the program, and of those, only about two in three complete the its 12 steps required to receive the scholarships after high school graduation.
To qualify for the grant, the community foundation was required to work with a coalition of about 25 representatives from area school corporations, colleges, social service agencies and the chamber of commerce. Those efforts already have produced some results, said Isaias Solis, executive director of student and school supports for the South Bend Empowerment Zone, the entity tasked by the state with improving academics at five schools on the city’s west side.
Students must enroll in the program by June of their eighth grade year. Last year, about a week before the enrollment deadline, the foundation told zone and corporation officials that only 11% of eligible Navarre Intermediate Center students had enrolled. A team launched a community awareness blitz targeting about 140 families, including going door-to-door, radio ads and phone banking by Black Lives Matter members.
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