WHAT WE DO AND HOW WE DO IT

The essential ingredients of the program are these:

Academic Advising.  As soon as students have been selected, we help them refine their college selections.  Once they have been admitted, we turn to helping them get the best possible financial packages from their chosen colleges. We monitor students' progress throughout college and work to ensure that academic, social and financial issues don't go unattended.

Internships. Six-week paid internships are provided by New York Public Radio in the summer between high school graduation and the beginning of college to expose students to a good work place with serious, productive adults willing to teach and mentor them.  

Orientation.  During the internships the summer after high school graduation, we provide a college orientation program to prepare students for freshman year.  This program helps our students get to know each other. They also meet students from other outstanding scholarship programs.  They also share in a variety of summer cultural and educational experiences.

Ongoing support. During college breaks and summers in the city, students continue to attend occasional events sponsored by Scholarship Plus, and the program continues to counsel them individually about academic choices and career opportunities. The program encourages students to use campus services for such needs, but stands ready to assist when these are inadequate or when students want to talk for whatever reason with reliable adults outside their schools.

Summer jobs. The program offers assistance finding paid summer jobs during college, as well as selective internships - an increasingly important part of the undergraduate years. Scholarship Plus also strives to provide stipends so that students can afford to take the low-paid or unpaid summer internships that better-off students can more easily afford, and that are increasingly crucial to further academic and career opportunities.