Innovation New Jersey
  • Home
  • Our Coalition
    • Contact Us
  • News
  • Resources
    • State Supports
    • Federal Supports
    • Higher Ed Supports
  • Join Us

Innovation News

Everything Innovation. Everything New Jersey.
Follow us and stay connected.

Rutgers Future Scholars Graduates Its First Class; Program Presents Opportunity for Aspiring Low-Income, First-Generation College Students

5/5/2017

0 Comments

 
New Brunswick, NJ — Patti Verbanas reports that when the Class of 2017 graduates from Rutgers University in May, approximately 55 will walk with special distinction as the first Rutgers Future Scholars to earn university degrees.  
 
Including other universities, a total of 75 Future Scholars will graduate this spring.
 
Since 2008, the pioneering program has inspired and prepared 1,800 low-income, first-generation students to attend college.
 
Conceived when the university noticed that few students from its host communities were enrolling at Rutgers, the program sought to discover promising students and invest in their futures.
​Each year, Future Scholars, which is funded primarily through private and corporate contributions, accepts 215 seventh-grade students – 50 each from New Brunswick, Piscataway, Newark and Camden, plus 15 from Rahway – who remain in the program through their high school graduation.
 
The students receive mentoring, tutoring and college prep courses, including required summer sessions. Upon graduation, if the student applies and is accepted to Rutgers, the university covers the cost of tuition.
 
On average, 90 percent of the students enroll at a college the fall after graduating high school; 70 percent are admitted to Rutgers and of those 50 percent attend.
 
Of the 183 students who made up the first class, 163 enrolled in post-secondary institutions, 98 of them with full scholarships to Rutgers.
 
“We focus on the ‘if only’ students – those who teachers say could excel if only they had the opportunity or financial means,” says Aramis Gutierrez, the program’s director. “Beyond academic aptitude, we look for students with leadership skills or who are engaged in community service.”
 
To qualify for the program, students must be the first generation in their family to attend college and meet the Educational Opportunity Fund guidelines on income.
 
“We ask them to write essays, which is how we get to know who they are and who they aspire to be,” says Kim Williams, associate director.
 
During the school year, college courses co-taught by a university professor and a trained instructor from the district are offered for high school and college credit. In addition, the School of Arts and Sciences at Rutgers University-Newark offers courses after school.
 
Gutierrez says, “Our Scholars, like their peers, have a lot of questions – ‘Am I smart enough? Will I fit in? Can I afford it?’ We provide answers by exposing them to college credit courses as early as the ninth grade, building a community of likeminded peers and educating them on how to pay for college and apply for scholarships.”
 
Each summer, students attend courses taught by Rutgers instructors on the various campuses. Internships during their junior year allow them to earn college credit and get paid.
 
Peer support is emphasized throughout the program. In addition, Future Scholars who have finished at least a semester at Rutgers can take a mentoring course for credit and assist high school Future Scholars in time management, course selection and handling stress.
 
Scholars in college also serve as ambassadors, returning to the high schools to offer encouragement and advice.
 
“I tell current scholars to take full advantage of this opportunity to be a pioneer and set a new culture for their families – one of achieving higher education,” says Marcellus Hill, who attended Brim Medical Arts High School in Camden and is graduating from Rutgers-Camden with a degree in health science. He plans to enroll in graduate school to study physical therapy.
 
“A lot of these students are like I was: In the seventh grade, I didn’t understand how inaccessible college was for people in my demographic.”
 
Many Scholars, like Hill, are eyeing graduate school. “College was difficult, but I want to move on to the next level as I understand how important higher education is,” says Harvey Mills, a student from Woodrow Wilson High School in Camden who is graduating from Rutgers-New Brunswick with a degree in history and Africana studies. A substitute teacher in Plainfield, Mills plans on pursuing a master’s degree in education.
 
Athena Torres, who attended high school with Hill and will receive her bachelor’s degree in nursing from Rutgers University-Newark, says she experienced some peer pressure. “Few of my friends were in the program.
 
While they were hanging out in the summer, I was taking college classes, but that opened up many opportunities,” says Torres, who was raised in a single-parent household and decided to pursue medicine after caring for her terminally ill grandmother. “I have been called to interview for jobs because employers see ‘Future Scholars’ on my application.”
 
Himang Patel of Piscataway, who will receive his degree in finance and accounting from Rutgers University-New Brunswick, has seen firsthand how the Future Scholars program paves the way to jobs: After commencement, he will start work on Wall Street in Deutsche Bank’s regulation compliance and anti-financial crime unit.
 
Patel, who emigrated from India at age 8, found assimilating difficult. “I was taking it one grade at a time, but when I entered the Future Scholars program, I saw all that was possible. When I got to college, companies took note of me because my involvement in the program and reached out to me for internships.  That work helped me succeed beyond my dreams.”
 
Beyond their degrees and job offers, the graduating Future Scholars cite their peers as the most valuable part of their experience.  “This is more than a program,” says Torres. “It is family.”
 
 
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Do not miss a single innovative moment and sign up for our newsletter!
    Weekly updates


    Categories

    All
    3D Printing
    Academia
    Acquisitions
    Aerospace
    Agriculture
    AIDS
    Algae
    Alumni
    Animals
    Architecture
    Astrophysics
    Autism
    Awards
    Big Data
    Bioethics
    Biofuel
    Biomedical
    BioNJ
    Bioterrorism
    Bit Coins
    Brain Health
    Business
    Camden
    Cancer
    CCollege
    Cellular
    Centenary
    Chemistry
    ChooseNJ
    Climate Change
    Clinical Trials
    Cloud Tech
    Collaboration
    Computing
    Congress
    Coriell
    Council On Innovation
    Crowdfunding
    Cybersecurity
    DARPA
    Defense
    Degree
    Dementia
    Dental Health
    DOC
    DOD
    DOE
    Drew
    Drones
    Drug Creation
    Einstein's Alley
    Electricity
    Energy
    Engineering
    Entrepreneurship
    Environmental
    FAA
    Fairleigh Dickinson
    FDA
    Federal Budget
    Federal Government
    Federal Labs
    Federal Program
    Finance
    Food Science
    Fort Monmouth
    Fuel Cells
    Funding
    Genome
    Geography
    Geology
    Global Competition
    Google
    Governor Christie
    Grant
    Hackensack
    HackensackUMC
    Healthcare
    Health Care
    HHS
    HINJ
    Hospitals
    Immigration
    Incubator
    Infrastructure
    International
    Internet
    Investor
    IoT
    IP
    IT
    Jobs
    Johnson & Johnson
    K-12
    Kean
    Kessler
    Legislation
    Logistics
    Manufacturing
    Medical Devices
    Med School
    Mental Health
    Mentor
    Microorganisms
    Molecular Biology
    Montclair
    NAS
    Neuroscience
    Newark
    New Jersey
    NIFA
    NIH
    NIST
    NJBDA
    NJBIA
    NJ Chemistry Council
    NJCU
    NJDOLWD
    NJEDA
    NJEDge
    NJHF
    NJII
    NJIT
    NJMEP
    NJPAC
    NJPRO
    NJTC
    Nonprofit
    NSF
    OpEd
    Open Data
    OSHE
    OSTP
    Parasite
    Patents
    Paterson
    Patients
    Perth Amboy
    Pharma
    POTUS
    PPPL
    Princeton
    Prosthetics
    Ranking
    Rare Disease
    R&D Council
    Report
    Resiliency
    Rider
    Robotics
    Rowan
    Rutgers
    SBA
    Seton Hall
    Siemens
    Smart Car
    Smart Cities
    Software
    Solar
    Space
    SSTI
    Startup
    State Government
    STEM
    Stevens
    Stockton
    Subatomic
    Supports
    Sustainability
    Taxes
    TCNJ
    Teachers
    Telecom
    Therapy
    Thermodynamics
    Transportation
    Undergraduate
    USEDA
    Verizon
    Video Game
    Virtual Reality
    Water
    WHO
    William Paterson
    Women In STEM
    Workforce Development

Home   Coalition   News   Resources   Events   Join Us
Picture
Innovation New Jersey Coalition
222 West State Street
Suite 302
Trenton, NJ 08608
732-729-9619