For the nearly 1,000 high school students who turned out for Tuesday’s college scholarship fair held by the Urban League of Northwest Indiana, making a good impression can go a long way to making college more affordable.
“We ask students to be prepared to give their elevator speech,” Urban League President and CEO Vanessa Allen McCloud told the Post-Tribune, “because you never know when you can get a scholarship just by introducing yourself and talking to your recruiter and letting them know what your major is and what you want to go into.”
The event, co-sponsored by nonprofit Infinite Scholars Program and hosted by IU Northwest, was attended by juniors and seniors from 25 high schools in Lake, Porter and LaPorte counties, helps connect college-bound students with funding opportunities. Many of them — like Valparaiso High School senior Aniyah Edwards — were offered scholarships on the spot.
Edwards received a $12,000 scholarship from IUN. She said that she plans to pursue a career in veterinary medicine, inspired in part by her experiences slicing up a worm and later a rat as part of her science classes.
“I always really loved to be around animals,” she said. “I did my first dissection in seventh grade, and I learned that that’s what I want to do.”
Last year ISP distributed roughly $5.7 million in scholarships, according to CFO José Cornier, and the organization expects to give out a similar amount this year. Founded in 2003, the Missouri-based organization has handed out over $2 billion in scholarships since its inception, and Cornier anticipates that it will cross the $3 billion mark “in the next several years.”
It was the second year that the event was hosted by IUN. Chancellor Ken Iwama told the Post-Tribune that showing high schoolers what’s available helps combat “a narrative that has grown across the country that higher education is not worth it.”
The Indiana Commission for Higher Education’s most recent college readiness report showed that the college-going rate among the state’s high school graduates has declined significantly in recent years, dipping from 65% in 2015 to just 53% in 2020. The commission concluded that “our educational attainment is not close enough to where it needs to be.”
Iwama voiced a similar concern.
“The problem with that is that is as the economy progresses into the new economy, many of the high paying jobs will require a two-year, four-year degree,” he said. “And so for me it’s a little bit of a crisis that we need to do better job.”
In the hundreds of students assembled in IUN’s Savannah Center, Iwama sees a source of hope.
In addition to scholarships provided through ISP, the fair showcased an array of other opportunities for college-bound youth. Elmhurst University, for instance, does not participate in ISP’s scholarships, but the institution sent a representative to the event to offer guaranteed admissions to qualified student attendees.
“I’m anticipating as few as five, as many as 25, of depending on interest,” associate director of first-year admissions Zachary Rowe said.
The university awards financial aid packages of between $10,000 and $25,000 to nearly all students, Rowe said, and offers an additional $500 per year to students who submit their applications before November 1.
adalton@chicagotribune.com
