Jessie Ball duPont Fund Grant Spurs Carolina College Advising Corps Expansion

The Jessie Ball duPont Fund has funded an expansion of a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill program that will enable more North Carolina high school seniors to realize the goal of attending college.

The duPont Fund has created a matching-grant program that will provide up to $210,000 to support new and existing partner high schools in the Carolina College Advising Corps (CCAC). Based in Jacksonville, Fla., the fund is a national foundation with funding priorities that include building assets of people, families and communities.

"We are grateful to the Jessie Ball duPont Fund for supporting the Carolina College Advising Corps and the students, schools and communities we serve," said Stephen Farmer, UNC's associate provost and director of undergraduate admissions. "This grant will help deserving young men and women take the next step in their educational journey - a step that many of them might not otherwise take. The long-term benefits - for these students, their families and for all of North Carolina - will be enormous."

Just two years old, the CCAC helps low-income, first-generation and underrepresented students in North Carolina realize the goal of attending college. A constituent program of the National College Advising Corps (headquartered at UNC), the CCAC places recent Chapel Hill graduates - many of them first-generation college students themselves - as college advisers in low-income high schools across the state.

"This program goes to the heart of what the Jessie Ball duPont Fund is trying to achieve with regard to increasing the college-going rates of minority, low-wealth and first generation students by providing them with highly trained recent college graduates who will work in under-resourced schools and serve as college counselors, peer mentors and personal inspirations for students who do not believe that college is in their future," said Sharon E. Greene, senior program officer at the duPont Fund. "While the program is new, the Carolina Corps is looked to as a model for future sustainability of similar programs across the country, and our grant is intended to provide matching funds to encourage local support of the program."

CCAC advisers increase college-going rates by providing admissions and financial-aid advising to students and their families through group and one-on-one sessions that help students identify good-fitting colleges, complete their admissions and financial-aid applications, and enroll at the schools they choose.

The program aims to have three impacts: increase the college-going rate at each partner school; expand the range of colleges and universities to which students apply and in which they enroll; and help principals, counselors and teachers foster a college-going culture.

Currently, the CCAC places 17 advisers in 36 high schools. They spend two to three days per week in each of their two schools, tailoring their efforts to meet the individual needs and culture of each school and its students. These efforts complement, rather than compete with, the work of high-school guidance counselors.

If fully funded, the matching-grant program created by the Jessie Ball duPont Fund could, over the next three years, support up to 24 high schools that would otherwise lack the resources to provide full funding for one or more advisers.

The matching fund program has already paid off in Davidson and Rockingham counties.

In Davidson County, DavidsonWorks - the county workforce development group - will provide $36,250 over two years to help fund an adviser at Lexington and Thomasville high schools starting in the 2009-10 academic year.

"DavidsonWorks is delighted to support the Carolina College Advisor Corp program in our local schools," said Nancy Borrell, executive director of DavidsonWorks. "We believe that our investment will have a positive impact in encouraging students to complete high school and pursue higher education."

The Annie Penn Community Trust and the Rockingham County Education Foundation will also match funds from the Jessie Ball duPont Fund to support two advisers who will work in Rockingham County's four high schools: McMichael, Morehead, Reidsville and Rockingham County. The trust, based in Reidsville, makes grants supporting programs and initiatives aimed at improving the health, wellness and quality of life of Rockingham County citizens. The Education Foundation's emphasis is to increase the number of students who graduate from high school and continue their education through college programs or through workforce training.

"Having a college adviser has been a wonderful addition to Morehead High School this year," said Betty Harrington, principal of Morehead High School in Eden. "Kelli Hammond, our adviser, has worked hard from day one to create opportunities for our students to pursue their dreams of going to college. We are very grateful to have the program for an additional two years and would welcome it in our school on a permanent basis."

While CCAC is only in its second year, preliminary data from its first year are impressive. With four advisers serving eight high schools in the program's first year, a total of 1,841 individual advising sessions were held with 930 students, as well as 67 group sessions held and 197 FAFSA forms (federal financial-aid applications) submitted.

Carolina Development May 15, 2009