East Bay College Fund featured in:

March 19, 2010

Nonprofits Add Mentoring to Money to Keep Minorities in College

By TRACEY TAYLOR

As college admissions season draws to a close, the spotlight has been on students’ getting a foot in the door. Less attention is paid to how many of today’s high school seniors will emerge a few years down the line with diplomas in hand, and what might cause them to veer off track.

It is much tougher to stay the course in college if you are the first in your family to enroll in college, if you have rarely strayed far from home and if your life is still affected by family problems, be it a jobless parent or an addicted sibling.

At a national level, one student in two enrolling in college earns a degree within six years. In the Bay Area’s most challenged communities, the ratio is far worse. The problem is most acute among young black and Latino men. According to data gathered by the Oakland Unified School District, only 8 percent of black teenagers entering ninth grade will get a bachelor’s degree. Only 34 percent of black male students, and 44 percent of Latino male students who entered the combined University of California and California State University system in 2001 had graduated six years later. The rate for white men was 62 percent.

That statistic, graduation rates, is in the cross hairs of the East Bay College Fund. It is perhaps the most visible of a small but growing number of Bay Area nonprofits that are beginning to make inroads in steering young, at-risk students to college, and also helping them through it. The fund’s method is to supplement financial aid with a carefully administered program of mentoring, peer-to-peer guidance and life-skills training.

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Hoops Great Courtney Paris will Share Off-Court Lessons
with East Bay College Fund Scholars

Basketball superstar Courtney Paris returns home on May 19 to give
an off-court assist to 18 East Bay youth who have beaten significant
personal odds while preparing for college.

Paris will speak at the East Bay College Fund’s seventh annual
“Great Expectations Awards” at 6:30 p.m. next Tuesday (5/19) at the
Student Union Building on the campus of Mills College, 5000
MacArthur Boulevard, Oakland. The ceremony is open to the public.

Paris, the Piedmont High standout who became the first four-time All-
American in women’s college basketball, will be the keynote speaker
at the East Bay College Fund’s awards ceremony honoring the 2009
recipients of four-year college scholarships. Expanding her influence
off the court, Paris is an advocate of giving back to one’s community
and a firm believer in the importance of a college education.

Paris recently earned her B.A. in journalism from the University of
Oklahoma and joined the Sacramento Monarchs as a No. 7 selection
in the 2009 WNBA draft. The daughter of former 49ers lineman
Bubba Paris, Courtney Paris has a twin sister, Ashley, who will play
for the Los Angeles Sparks.

The eighteen scholarship recipients, all seniors at Oakland and
Emeryville public high schools, come from low-income households
and communities with historically low college attendance rates. The
majority will be the first in their families to attend a four-year
university. Along with facing financial need, many have experienced
family tragedy and other major hardships.

The East Bay College Fund, a community-based nonprofit, will
provide each recipient with a $16,000, four-year college scholarship,
along with an adult mentor and other support throughout the college
experience.

Andy Fremder, president of the East Bay College Fund, says, “We
are thrilled that Courtney will be there to welcome our new group of
scholars to the East Bay College Fund community. Her
accomplishments and attitude are truly inspiring. Courtney is a
wonderful role model for us all.”

The 2009 scholarship recipients were selected from among 165
applicants. This fall, they will attend such schools as UCLA, UC San
Diego, UC Merced, the University of Oregon, Ohio Wesleyan, San
Jose State, the University of San Francisco, and CSU East Bay.

Along with honoring the incoming class of scholarship recipients, the
East Bay College Fund will celebrate the forthcoming college
graduation of six of its scholars, bringing the total number of Scholar
graduates to seventeen. Since its inception in 2002, the East Bay
College Fund has helped 100 resilient public high school seniors fulfill
their dreams of going to college.

For more information, please visit www.eastbaycollegefund.org

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