D.C. Public School students are receiving better college opportunities because of help from schools like George Washington University, which recently awarded its Trachtenberg Scholarship to nine D.C public high school seniors, according to The Washington Post. AU is following suit with improved college recruitment methods in the District.
GW's academic scholarship, which began in 1989 and is named after current GW president Stephen Trachtenberg, awards recipients $200,000, according to a GW press release. The four-year scholarship covers tuition, fees, books and room and board.
The scholarship aims to recruit qualified students for GW, but also plans to give D.C. students a better opportunity to attend college, according to the press release.
"It is a source of great pride and represents both a way to give back to our community and invest in our best and brightest young citizens," Trachtenberg said in the press release.
Less than half of D.C. public school students graduate from high school within five years, according to a 2006 study financed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Also within five years, only 9 percent of college-bound students from D.C. public schools actually finish college, the same study said.
Arianne Martin, the assistant director of undergraduate admissions at AU, said AU is helping to improve these statistics through an increased focus on recruiting students and working with scholarship programs. This applies for D.C. students and all students in the D.C. metropolitan area.
"We definitely try to get as many local students as possible," she said.
Martin could not provide the number of D.C. students attending AU, but said the admissions department is constantly advancing their techniques to better recruit these students.
Along with staying visible to high school students in the District, Martin said AU is working with programs such as the D.C. Tuition Assistance Grant Program to increase the number of District students attending college.
DC TAG is a federal program that pays college-bound D.C. students the difference between in-state and out-of-state public colleges for participating colleges across the country. It is also available for students attending private, non-profit colleges in the D.C. metropolitan area, such as AU, according to the D.C. State Education Office Web site.
Yattah Blanton, a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences, tutors D.C. public school students through the D.C. Reads program and thinks the efforts that AU and other universities offer these students opportunities that might otherwise be impossible for them to have.
"AU could be instrumental in helping to end the generational curse that tells these children that they can't make a better life for themselves than their parents did," Blanton said.
Most District students are African-American, and greater recruiting efforts by big universities will diversify their college options to more than just community and traditionally black colleges, Blanton said.
According to Martin, AU is also working with charter schools in the District to improve their number of college-bound students. Charter schools are publicly funded schools that are free from government regulations but required to produce high academic results.
Halimah Celestine, a media relations associate at GW, said charter schools did not exist when the Trachtenberg Scholarship began in 1989, and students in these schools are currently not eligible for the scholarship. However, GW is working to extend more financial aid to charter school students.
The Trachtenberg Scholarship has been successful, with 90 percent of the participants eventually graduating from GW, Celestine said.
