KPLU Local News
(2010-06-21)
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Ivery Rhodes will attend Eastern Washington University next year on a College Success Foundation scholarship.
Photo by: Charla Bear/KPLU News
Ivery Rhodes says he didn't see many options for his future when he was a freshman at Seattle's Cleveland High School.
"My mom she's on welfare," he says. "And we don't really have much. And due to my financial status and the other distractions in my life, such as gangs, college was nowhere in my mind coming into high school."
That all changed when he won an achiever's scholarship from the College Success Foundation.
Next fall, the 18-year-old is headed to Eastern Washington University to major in business management. He says the scholarship program's money, mentors and alumni helped him realize his potential.
"I most likely would've graduated and just got a job," he says. "But due to what I saw previous achievers do, I wanted to surpass them. Go beyond what they did."
For the past decade, the College Success Foundation has tried to help low income students see higher education as a possibility. It works with 16 high schools throughout the state, including Lincoln in Tacoma, Mariner in Everett and Davis in Yakima.
The foundation's latest report shows that more than 1600 of its students have achieved bachelors degrees.
Deborah Wilds, the foundation's president and Chief Operating Officer says students have the desire, but they need support.
"They need the human support from people who can help them navigate the system. And then they need the financial supports," she says.
The organization has doled out more than $107 million dollars in scholarships, funded largely by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Yet even with all that money, some students still don't make it through 4-years of school. Wilds says only about a quarter finish if they start at a community college.
Still, the organization's successes were enough to get another Gates grant to expand to the District of Columbia a few years ago. The funding is for a limited time, though, and this month marks the end of Gates money for new scholarships in Washington State.
"Clearly, this is something where we need more commitment from our public entities, both federal and state, to ensure greater financial access," Wilds says.
She says stronger financial aid programs would make models like the College Success Foundation's more effective - and that means a lot of students with few resources, but great potential, could finish college.
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