Higher Education News
Most 2006-07 Kalamazoo Promise students get scholarship renewal
By Associated Press
Jul 29, 2007, 21:35

KALAMAZOO Mich.
About 80 percent of students who received college scholarships under The Kalamazoo Promise program in 2006-07 kept up their grades enough to have their funding renewed this fall.

The rest of the scholarship recipients, or 62 of 332 students, received letters that they may not have their scholarships renewed because of poor grades, the Kalamazoo Gazette reported Sunday.

Scholarship suspension letters went to 44 of 146 students, or 30 percent, of those who attended community college, and 18 of 186, or 10 percent, of those at four-year colleges, said Robert Jorth, the program's administrator.

"Frankly, most of them were trying to do too much," Jorth said of those who didn't make the cut to stay in the program. "They were working too many hours and going to school at the same time, and it was too much.

"They also hadn't done a lot of educational planning."

Twenty-three of the 62 students who received letters are taking college classes this summer to raise their GPAs and could be reinstated by fall, Jorth said.

The anonymously funded program, announced in November 2005 for Kalamazoo Public Schools graduates, provides scholarships covering 65 percent to 100 percent of a pupil's college tuition for four years after high school graduation.

Members of the class of 2006, who entered college last fall, were the first recipients.

Students must maintain a 2.0 grade point average in college to stay in the program. Students who don't may be reinstated once they complete a college semester with a GPA of 2.0 or higher, Jorth said.

On the Net:

Kalamazoo Public Schools: http://www.kalamazoopublicschools.com

Information from: Kalamazoo Gazette, http://www.mlive.com/kzgazette