Providing a way to attend college
By Staff
Kim West
I grew up in an area very similar to Franklin County, but the level of support and spirit shown for the county and city schools here has been very impressive.
I'll never forget covering a football game last season when Athens, the defending state champions and my hometown school, hosted Russellville. The Golden Tigers fans outnumbered the home crowd and also showed a lot more enthusiasm and support for their team.
When I began working here last May, something that immediately caught my attention was a scholarship and teacher recognition program funded by There's A Way, Inc., a non-profit foundation based in Russellville and founded by former Franklin County district attorney and judge John Jolly.
The program started in 2001 and has awarded scholarships for the past five years. Last year 60 students each received a $1,000 scholarship, and 13 teachers were recognized by their peers for the Outstanding Teacher award and $500 stipend given to one educator at each school in the city and county systems.
TAW requires the scholarship recipients to submit their grades in college, and from last year's class, 59 students are in good standing through fall 2007, and 32 made either the President's List (4.0 GPA) or Dean's List (3.5).
Students can apply for grants or loans to fund college, but scholarships provide another option for students from low-income or middle-class families to pay the rising costs of tuition and college-related expenses, which has risen 7 percent annually, according to TAW.
In the past five years, full-time tuition, room and board for two semesters at Northwest-Shoals Community College has risen 32 percent from $4,080 in 2002-03 to $5,380 in 2007-08. Those costs over the same period of time at North Alabama increased 43 percent from $6,946 to $9,908.
"I'm highly aware of the costs of college," said Jolly, who visits each high school in the county and personally interviews every scholarship applicant. "Our daughter just enrolled in January at the University of Alabama, so I know firsthand how much college costs these days."
One day I would love to start a similar program to assist Limestone County students. In the meantime, I'd like to encourage Franklin County seniors to turn in their TAW scholarship applications by the Friday, Feb. 29 deadline. There are 60 scholarships available again this year thanks to the generosity of community donors, and isn't $1,000 is a lot of money to leave on the table?
