Atlanta students lead nation in Gates Millennium Scholarships

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Atlanta students lead nation in Gates Millennium Scholarships
May 9, 2010
by Maureen Downey
AJC

I want to note the unprecedented number of metro students named Gates Millennium Scholars this year. This year, 50 metro Atlanta seniors received the scholarships. And Atlanta Public Schools earned 29 of those slots, the most for any district in the nation. Many recipients are not only the first in their families to go to college, they are also the first to graduate high school. (For a list of all 50, please go here.)

The scholarships are open to low-income minority students who have a cumulative GPA of 3.3 or higher, have demonstrated leadership abilities and meet Federal Pell Grant eligibility criteria.

The generous Gates scholarship covers students’ academic costs for as many years as it takes them to graduate college. It also provides academic support, mentoring and leadership training.

According to the AJC:

The (APS) school system’s strong showing was the result of an initiative the United Negro College Fund, the program’s administrator, launched in 2008 to increase the number of eligible students.

For years, students from Atlanta schools applied for the full-ride scholarships but, when taken with the more than 20,000 other applications received each year, theirs weren’t considered competitive.

“We were seeing strong students come through but they weren’t presenting applications in ways that would make them competitive so we came up with a plan to work with school districts to help them work with the students they considered strong candidates,” said Larry Griffith, vice president of the program.

After talks with district officials and then-Mayor Shirley Franklin, Griffith said they began holding workshops with students to help prepare them for the rigorous application process and with school counselors and other staff so that they could provide the mentoring students would need to market themselves appropriately.

Trina Scott, a counselor at Carver Health Science & Research, has participated in the specialized training since the initiative was launched two years ago.

The two-hour training, she said, covers everything from helping students tell their stories in the most compelling way to choosing the best person to write letters of recommendation and hitting the send button on their computers no later than 11:59 p.m. January 11, the deadline for submitting the application.

In addition to the training, banners were hung at the school touting the scholarship. Instead of “Got Milk” posters, “Got Gates” posters populated the walls.

Carver Principal Darian Jones said schools are encouraged each year to identify students with a grade point average of 3.3 or above as early as the junior year to apply for the scholarship and to hold meetings with them and their parents.

At Carver, he said, Gates alumni were invited to come and talk to perspective scholars about their experiences, to give them the extra incentive to complete the application. They even shared their essays to use as guides.

“They tell them they don’t have to stand in financial aid lines like other students because everything is paid for,” said Scott.

Students were encouraged to begin writing their essays over the summer.

“We tried to be much more intentional and it paid off,” said Jones.

Out of the 13 Carver students who applied, he said, five were named finalists.

One of them, Briahna Head, 18, said that while the tips she received to shore up her essays helped, the nomination and letter of recommendations she received from her AP biology teacher and mentor were the winning pieces of her application.

“They believed in me,” she said.