Research Underway To Show Impact Of Champion City Scholars Program

In the Fall of 2004, the first generation of students were welcomed into the Champion City Scholars Program with a guarantee that solid grades, regular attendance and good behavior would earn them a tuition-free education at Clark State upon graduation from high school. Three years later, that same group of students has entered the tenth grade and remains determined to be the first in their family to graduate from college. But how can the program prove that it’s making a difference in the lives of these children?

 

This year, Dee Garwood, Clark State Instructor in the Arts and Sciences Department, is helping to document the journey these students have embarked on through a longitudinal study to determine how successfully they learn “life skills.” Starting with this year’s newest group of 50 eighth grade Scholars, she will track their lives through age 22 to 24, approximately eight to ten years.

 

Garwood will work closely with these students to teach them the skills required to succeed in an academic setting. A “Life Skills Training” component will encourage students to examine communication and language patterns, financial resources, physical and nutritional health, spiritual and cultural identity, supportive networks and coping skills.

 

“We want you to be scholars, to be leaders,” Garwood said at the orientation session for this year’s new group of Scholars. Through her research, she hopes to learn to what degree the students’ social and academic skills were influenced by participating in this unique program.

 

In addition to the guidance provided by Garwood and Karen Hunt, Coordinator of the Champion City Scholars Program, these students will also be supported throughout their journey by their mentors and school counselors. This year six new volunteer mentors joined the team: Kris Culp, Janet James, Jamie Minteer, Mary Jo Leventhal, Shashi Chadha, and Callie Cary-Devine.

 

For this population of students, getting a college degree is no longer an economic impossibility and they can be reassured that the funding is not going to disappear. “I want you all to know we will be by your side. We’re in it for the long haul,” Karen Hunt tells the students and their parents. “We believe in you. We want you to succeed!”

 

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