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Rutgers Offers Free Tuition, Brighter Future for Selected Seventh-Graders

Date

May 26, 2009

New group of future scholars begins program as successful inaugural year concludes

 WHAT:
An induction ceremony to welcome nearly 200 seventh-grade students who were selected to participate in the Rutgers Future Scholars program



 WHO:
Nearly 200 seventh-grade students and their parents from Newark, New Brunswick, Piscataway and Camden will be greeted by Rutgers President Richard L. McCormick; Courtney McAnuff, vice president of enrollment management; and Aramis Gutierrez, director of Rutgers Future Scholars. Students from the program’s pilot year will share their experiences and offer encouragement.



 WHEN:
Friday, June 5, at 10 a.m.



 WHERE:
Allison Road Classroom Building, 618 Allison Road, Piscataway, NJ.



 BACKGROUND:

Beginning last year, Rutgers committed to selecting up to 200 low-income, academically-talented students each year to receive mentoring,

Girls at computer
educational support and cultural programming from eighth grade through high school. The selected students have parents who did not graduate from a four-year college. Students who successfully complete the pre-college program and get accepted into Rutgers will receive a four-year scholarship for the total cost of tuition.

Some of the successes the program experienced in its first year include:

  • More than 80 percent of Future Scholars maintained a B average or higher in core subjects.
  • Students increased their participation in extracurricular activities and held more leadership positions in school organizations.
  • Parents of Future Scholars increased their involvement in academic-related activities.
  • Approximately 97 percent of the students successfully completed their first year of the program.


Students are residents of Rutgers’ host cities – Newark, New Brunswick, Piscataway and Camden. According to one program participant, “I didn’t know I had a future, until I was a Rutgers Future Scholar.”

Media Contact: Nicole Pride
732-932-7084, ext. 610
E-mail: npride@ur.rutgers.edu