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Shannon Smith
| Your Turn
It’s not every day that you get to give six kindergarteners a life-changing surprise: scholarships covering their first year of college.
But earlier this month, we did just that for six students at John G. Riley Elementary. It was an elevation of our long-running work with the Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce’s Classroom Connection program, and a model that I, on behalf of the Moore Agency, hope other Classroom Connection sponsors will adopt.
As Moore and five other donors watched Superintendent Rocky Hanna and School Board member Marcus Nicolas hand the scholarship certificates to Alayna, Bryson, Gael, Jamir, Laila and Taylor, they smiled, and their faces lit up. They understood that they were being recognized for something special. But at age 5 and 6, they cannot yet grasp the true magnitude of what they received.
Their families, however, understand what this represents.
Research from the Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce shows that children with even a fraction of college costs covered are 2.5 to 4 times more likely to attend and graduate college. And by 2030, nearly 75% of all jobs will require some level of postsecondary education. So, these scholarships represent a path of opportunity and hope.
Riley Elementary sits at the center of the highest-poverty zip code in all of Florida: 32304. College is not the path for the majority here. But paving a path to college, one student and one scholarship at a time, can open doors and elevate expectations. Higher education is how we can change the trajectory of lives and break the cycle of poverty in our community and across the state.
This is why I, through the Moore Impact program, led the initiative to establish these scholarships with the help of six donors – The Moore Agency, Carroll and Company CPAs, Kessler Construction, MillCreek Financial, the Mullin Family and Sparkle Tallahassee Boutique. We hope this becomes the model for how we make Classroom Connection even more impactful.
For more than four years, the Moore Agency has mentored a kindergarten class at Riley through the Classroom Connection program, which allows businesses to support students and teachers during the first years of elementary school by adopting a kindergarten or 1st grade classroom in Leon County.
We have worked with fellow Classroom Connection businesses to establish a permanent food pantry on campus. We have led coat drives and worked together to make sure every single kindergartner goes home for winter break with gifts and food. Moore this year helped establish a pet therapy reading program that is already resulting in student gains.
In December, we took every Riley kindergartner to see “The Nutcracker” at Ruby Diamond. It was magical for these students.
These resources and experiences are incredible gifts to our Riley Bears. But opening the door to college is a gift that can move mountains for generations. Establishing these scholarships was relatively affordable for each donor and simple to execute. It can, and should, be duplicated across our community.
Each of the Riley Classroom Connection sponsors contributed less than $1,000 to the Foundation for Leon County Schools, and the Florida Prepaid College Foundation matched the donations 1:1 through their Path to Prosperity Scholarship Program, which aims to reduce childhood poverty in Florida by providing a pathway to college for students in the 150 most poverty-stricken zip codes in the state.
The program is led by the Florida Prepaid College Foundation and the Florida Chamber Foundation. The six donations and matching funds covered the cost of six one-year college scholarships. Riley school leaders then selected the students based on financial need, academics and teacher input. The scholarships cover the students’ first 30 college credit hours, or trade and technical tuition.
Alayna, Bryson, Gael, Jamir, Laila and Taylor are 13 years away from college. But now, because six donors raised their hands, the students have a path to follow and a goal to chase. Imagine what we as a community could do if more donors came forward.
Shannon C. Smith is a managing director at The Moore Agency and co-leads the Moore Impact program.
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