KPLU Local News
(2010-01-17)
Listen Now:
null
Shirley Hoard and her daughter Tiesa McElroy.
Jennifer Wing photo.
"Why am I doing this, why am I doing this. Because all of the stuff I was learning at Rainier Scholars, I wasn't learning any of that stuff in my schools and now that I'm in 7th grade, we're just starting to get into a couple of the things I was learning in Rainier Scholars."
McElroy stuck with it and today she's in her first year at Knox College, a small private liberal arts school in Illinois. At 19, she's still pretty soft spoken, but has a definite air of self confidence.
"Um I did pretty well in my first term."
She's on a scholarship and has over a 3.0 grade point average. I ask her if she's declared a major.
"No, I've been thinking about a major, but I'm still undecided, so that's what I call my major for now. But hopefully it will come to me."
Out of the 75 kids who started out with McElroy, 40 stayed with the program and they are now attending schools all over the country. Places like The University of Chicago, Smith College, Swarthmore and Dartmouth. Needless to say, Bob Hurlbut, the man who came up with the idea to start Rainier Scholars years ago, is very proud. Today more than 300 students are coming up through the ranks. They're being mentored, doing extra work and landing scholarships to private schools in Seattle, or getting into advanced learning programs in public school, before they make the leap to college. When you ask Bob Hurlbut if he's glad the end is in sight for the first group now that they've made the leap to higher ed, he almost laughs.
"To me it will be another 10 years. When we see students not just getting their first jobs but really ascending to positions of leadership, whether it be education or business, whether it be financial. I would want to see our students in positions of influence. "
Tiesa McElroy knows this is expected of her, and says the pressure is not a problem. One question Hurlbut and others running Rainier Scholars has is whether students like McElroy would have gotten to where they are today without the help of the program. To find this out, the organization is going to track the progress of students who dropped out of Rainier Scholars to students who stick with it. The results won't be known for another few years, by which time McElroy may be zeroing in on her position of influence.
To hear the full story from KPLU Reporter Jennifer Wing, click the "play" arrow above.
The Original Story from 2004
Rainier Scholars
© Copyright 2012, KPLU
