Applications for UW-Green Bay Phuture Phoenix Scholarships due April 13
Area high school seniors have until Friday, April 13 to apply for a $1,000 University of Wisconsin-Green Bay Phuture Phoenix Scholarship.
Scholarships are made available to qualified students who plan to attend UW-Green Bay in the fall of 2012. The $1,000 scholarships are renewable each year the student attends UW-Green Bay.
“College access is more critical today than ever, because our world and our workplaces are changing so rapidly, so dynamically,” said Phuture Phoenix Director Kim Desotell. “Through the Phuture Phoenix program, we are saying that we will help students reach for their dreams.”
Scholarship awards will be based upon the applicants’ prior involvement in the Phuture Phoenix program through mentoring, tutoring or participation in the annual October Tour Day as a fifth-grader. The scholarship also will be based on financial need and proof of admission to UW-Green Bay.
The awards are made possible through the generosity of local donors supporting the Phuture Phoenix program. Applications are available in high school guidance offices, at the UW-Green Bay Institute for Learning Partnership (Wood Hall, Suite 410), and at www.uwgb.edu/phuturephoenix/.
The award-winning Phuture Phoenix program is a university/community enterprise that began in 2002 from an extended conversation between Cyndie Shepard, the wife of former chancellor Bruce Shepard, and University Trustee Ginny Riopelle about establishing a mentoring program that could help students in at-risk schools stay on course for college.
It has since served more than 10,000 school children from elementary schools with significant low-income populations. And Phuture Phoenix has been replicated at Silver Lake College, UW-Eau Claire and Western Washington University.
The cornerstone event of Phuture Phoenix is an autumn tour of the campus for nearly 1,400 fifth-graders attending high-needs schools in the area. Hundreds of UW-Green Bay student volunteers host the tours.
Since its inception, the Phuture Phoenix program has grown to be much more than a field trip. Each year several hundred UW-Green Bay students visit local middle and high schools, serving as positive role models and mentors for nearly 1,000 at-risk students.
“This will be our third year of awarding scholarships to Phuture Phoenix participants,” said Janet Lieb, community volunteer and chairperson of the scholarship committee. “We are especially proud that many of the applicants and scholarship recipients will be the first members of their families to attend college. It is a real pleasure to see these students receive assistance in their goal of obtaining a college education.”
For more information about Phuture Phoenix, visit www.uwgb.edu/phuturephoenix/.
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The Phuture Phoenix program at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay aims to increase the odds that at-risk students will graduate from high school and also pursue higher education. Phuture Phoenix involves bringing area fifth-graders from Title I elementary schools from throughout Northeastern Wisconsin to spend a day on campus as a means to envision themselves as future college students. Phuture Phoenix mentors—UW-Green Bay student volunteers—continue contact with many of these students in Phase II of the program. The mentors work closely with students in grades 6-12, tutoring and mentoring them. Since its inception in 2002, Phuture Phoenix has connected with more than 10,000 students, encouraging them to do well in school and dream of a future they may not have considered by moving on to higher education. The program was designed because Northeastern Wisconsin has a lower percentage of students in the state graduating high school and going on to higher education.
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