First Generation College Student Initiative Update
The initial cohort of students participating in the First Generation College Student Initiative (FGCSI) is about to complete the first year of classes at MCC and advance to mentor the next group of students who will begin the program this summer. Meanwhile, Foundation staff and scholarship committee members are busy reviewing applications, transcripts, writing samples, test results, and interviews to identify the next group of 25 students who will participate in the program. (Along with the FGCSI program, the Scholarship Committee is also reviewing 516 applications for the other 280 scholarships that are awarded by the MCC Foundation each year!)
Phase II of the FGCSI is well underway, with several new initiatives taking shape during the 2006-2007 academic year. Soon, high school students whose families are new to the college admissions and financial aid process will be able to call a new College Information Hotline to answer any questions they have. The hotline, sponsored by the MCC Foundation, TG Benefits, Parents for Public Schools, and Cingular/at & t, will operate 20 hours per week. It will be staffed by the husband-and-wife team of Scott and Shannon Bullard, both of whom hold advanced degrees and who are veterans of the college admissions and financial aid processes.
Working with the MCC Office of Institutional Effectiveness, the FGCSI program will conduct a survey of 1,500 Hispanic households in Waco this spring to assess attitudes toward higher education. Survey results are expected to yield significant data to help shape program development and marketing in the future. And, working with the Waco Independent School District, the FGCSI program this summer will begin offering free SAT and ACT test preparation courses for first-generation high school juniors and seniors.
The FGCSI program is pleased to welcome its new Coordinator, Ameenah Snow-Shabazz. Snow-Shabazz has assumed duties from former Coordinator Mito Espinoza, who accepted a similar outreach position with the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board on April 1.