Passport to Education Makes College More Accessible
Moorpark College opened in 1967 with 2,500 students. Today the college serves more than 14,000. Thousands of students successfully transfer or enter careers each year. Still, thousands of students choose not to continue on to college after high school graduation or drop out before their senior year.
The Moorpark College Foundation wants to make college accessible and affordable for all local high school students with the Passport to Education. This fund will pay first-year enrollment fees at Moorpark College for students who have participated in Passport to Education college preparation activities during their junior and senior years and have graduated from high school or achieved the equivalent.
The Moorpark College Foundation has consistently and exclusively focused on student scholarships for continuing and transfer students. With the Passport to Education, the Foundation is extending that support to high school students who might not otherwise believe that attending college is a realistic goal.
According to Foundation CEO and Moorpark College President Eva Conrad, the Passport to Education program would:
· Offer a promising future for students’ whose future goals are still being developed.
· Connect students to Moorpark College before they leave high school by welcoming them on campus for a variety of educational and fun activities.
· Develop a cohort of freshmen students who feel a greater connection to the college and are therefore more likely to persist from fall to spring semesters.
· Increase the number of potential employees in the county who have completed a year or two of college.
Set to launch in Fall 2007 with local high school juniors, the Passport to Education program plans include:
· Register students through the college and financial aid application processes.
· Host three orientation and social events for prospective college freshman.
· Require the student to attend a private counseling/advisement session.
· Encourage students to take a “college strategies or career exploration” class. (High school students who take community college classes are exempt from paying enrollment fees.)
High school juniors who begin the program this fall will graduate from high school in 2009 and be eligible to have their Moorpark College tuition paid for the 2008-2009 school year.
“The goal is to fund the Passport to Education program for high school graduates from four school districts, Simi Valley Unified, Moorpark Unified, Conejo Valley Unified, and Oak Park," said Conrad.
Proceeds from the Foundation’s fall event The Wild West Murder Mystery and Scholarship Roundup are solely dedicated to funding the Passport to Education.
For more information or to obtain tickets please contact: Jeanne Brown 805 378-1431 or email:
jmbrown@vcccd.edu
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