Social work junior Kristin Heinrich has a chance to provide hope to 500 area seventh graders by being a mentor this fall as part of a new scholarship program.
The program, Helping Other People Excel, or HOPE, provides Lansing students with two years of free education at Lansing Community College after completing high school graduation.
The scholarships aim to aid students identified as at-risk students by educators.
As part of the scholarship, the students would be matched with an MSU or LCC mentor and receive the opportunity to participate in a variety of activities.
“I think anything that is done to help give someone a fair chance is good,” Heinrich said. “But, there’s still a lot of kids out there that aren’t at-risk students and are just of a lower socio-economic class.
“These students need the same chances in the program.”
The program, modeled after a similar program in Jackson, Mich., was announced Monday by Mayor David Hollister during his State of the City address.
The Lansing Police Department introduced the $100,000 annual scholarship idea to city officials after learning of a neighboring city’s success with a similar program that began 12 years ago.
“A lot of these kids will be the first people in their family ever to go to college,” Lansing police Chief Mark Alley said. “What we’re offering is opportunity.”
Once the initial group of seventh graders reach their first year of college, 4,000 Lansing students will have received the opportunity to participate in the program.
“Along the way, it’s vital that we provide mentoring to them,” Alley said. “We’re going to take them out to MSU campus and get them accustomed to the college lifestyle before they graduate from high school.”
Although the university is applying for a federal grant for the program, university officials are still working so MSU students can have the opportunity to volunteer as mentors to Lansing teens, Alley said.
“We’ve had very positive feedback so far,” he said. “We’re looking for people who have gone to college to work with these kids and to say it’s something they can do.”
The Lansing Police Department, along with the MSU College of Education, Lansing Public School District and LCC are collaborating to launch the program in September.
“It’s a great opportunity for some of our students who may not see college or post-secondary education as a realistic goal,” said Mark Mayes, spokesman for the Lansing School District. “Students in the program would know for sure that college is in their reach if they meet the goals of the program.”
Lansing schools will select which students can participate in the scholarship program. Educators will also help monitor the students’ academic curriculum and attendance in school.
“We’re going to utilize the teachers in the classrooms to identify them,” Alley said. “No one knows them better than the teachers in the classroom.
“We think that if these kids just had a little help they could really make something of themselves.”
