Their Stories: Vol I

$19.95

ISBN: 978-1880463-99-4

Publication Date: 2023

5.25 x 7.5, 224 pages | $19.95 

Description

Inspiring Essays of Students from Challenging Backgrounds

Shares the stories of 27 students from challenging backgrounds in their own words. Most of these amazing students wrote deeply personal college essays reflecting on their journey through poverty, homeless, immigrating to the United States, or being raised in unconventional family situations by grandmothers and great grandmothers. All of the students either attended Title I Schools or qualified for free- or reduce-lunch. However, despite their challenges, colleges saw in their stories the grit and mindset deserving of being offered admission to some of the country’s most selective colleges and universities. Scholarship programs were equally impressed with their grit and mindset to award full scholarships.

This amazing group of students where selected for such prestigious scholarships and programs as the 2 Benedict College Trustee Scholars, Claflin University Honors College, Elon University Odyssey Scholar, 2 Gates Millennium Scholars, Georgia Tech Clark Scholar, 2 Jack Kent Cooke Scholars, National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow, 3 North Carolina A&T State University Honors College Dowdy and Cheatham-White Scholars, 2 Northeastern University Torch Scholars, 4 QuestBridge College Scholars, SalleMae “Bridging the Dream” Scholarship, Tuskegee University Distinguished Presidential Scholar, UMBC Meyerhoff Scholar, and as 2 University of Chicago Odyssey Scholars.

Our district is a Title I District, where 100 percent of students qualify for free- or reduced-lunch. We are located along the infamous South Carolina Corridor of Shame, so called, because we are among the lowest funded public schools in the nation. Our students live in generational poverty and oftentimes enter school void of hope. For many of our families, their primary educational goal is for their children to graduate from high school. Historically, even our class valedictorians and salutatorians have had a greater focus on being awarded their respective medals, as opposed to being awarded full college scholarships. The Wynns and their College Planning Cohort Program changed all of that.

Laura Hickson, Ed.D.
Superintendent of Schools
Florence School District 3
Lake City, South Carolina

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