Contact: Robbie Ward
STARKVILLE, Miss.--Mississippi State soon will begin dispersing an $812,000 grant to help encourage high school students in 12 counties to attend college.
Funded through the Appalachian Regional Commission, along with state and local governments, the grant will be used to support higher education accessibility projects and create better environments for targeted areas to help high school graduates further their education.
LaNell Kellum said the project will involve community leaders--including economic developers, elected officials and school administrators--dispersing amounts ranging from $5,000 to $10,000 in 2009.
Kellum and Julie Jordan are co-directors of the university-based Mississippi Accessing Higher Education Initiative of the Appalachian Higher Education Network. In administering the program, MSU will provide technical support and assistance in completion of the projects, Jordan said.
The three-year program targets counties designated by the ARC as "distressed." They include Benton, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Clay, Kemper, Marshall, Montgomery, Noxubee, Panola, Webster, Winston, and Yalobusha.
Awarded on a competitive basis, the grants will help establish a support network for high school graduates interested in attending a vocational or community college or four-year university.
Kellum said examples of proposed projects include mentoring and motivational programs and financial aid information-sharing sessions. In addition, the money will enable group visits by participants to area community colleges and businesses.
"We will seek to diminish some of the cultural barriers students may have from coming from distressed counties that could prevent them from attending college," Kellum said. "Local communities will emphasize this many different ways."
She said a key point is for students to learn that "some form of college education is essential in today's workforce."
Also, grants to each county should be considered as "seed funding" to help local communities develop their own revenue sources to support the programs after the grant ends.
Each year, the ARC seeks to provide funding to improve the quality of life and economic development in areas of Appalachia. Increasing job opportunities, strengthening local capacities to compete in a global economy and infrastructure development are among the regional agency's primary goals.
For more information, contact Kellum at 662-325-0215 or lanell@sig.msstate.edu.
For more information about Mississippi State University, see http://www.msstate.edu/.