Reaching out to the College Bound

The Tacoma Community College outreach team and other campus support services are busy building a student support team that will leap into action next fall. That’s when members of the first cohort of Washington’s “College Bound Scholars” program are scheduled to arrive on campus.

“College Bound” is a five-year-old state scholarship program designed to encourage low-income middle school students to aspire to higher education. Students sign a pledge in 7^th or 8^th grade, agreeing to keep their grades up and stay out of trouble. The state, in return, will pay four years of tuition plus books at any Washington college a pledge student can get into. The first cohort of eight graders signed up in 2007. They’ll be arriving on college campuses Fall 2012.

TCC’s outreach department and outreach partners are doing all they can to make sure College Bound students complete the transition to enrolled college students – and achieve success once they arrive.

“Statewide, there are 28,093 seniors that signed the promise,” said Outreach and Recruitment Specialist Lori Parrish. “Almost 60 percent of them will have a greater than 2.0 GPA.”

There’s no way of knowing how many College Bound students will enroll at TCC. But a pdf published by the Higher Education Coordinating Board (HECB) states that “a data-sharing agreement with OSPI allows schools and the HECB to monitor the progress of College Bound students.”

The 15,967 GPA eligible seniors have one or two hoops to jump through prior to enrollment, and Parrish is making it her personal mission to make sure none of Pierce County’s College Bound students slip through the cracks.

“They have to have their FAFSA done by Feb. 1,” said Parrish. “We see that as another barrier to enrollment.”

Parrish and several of the Outreach Partners teams are scheduled to support FAFSA workshop nights at local high schools to help College Bound students meet their deadline. And they plan to have a HECB member on hand to answer College Bound scholar questions at Ways2Pay4College events, which TCC will host this year at both the Tacoma and Gig Harbor campuses.