2005 Community Grantees
College Spark’s 2005 grant recipients are listed below by region. Some programs serve several locations or the entire state of Washington.
Statewide
Washington MESA (Statewide) - $50,000 to expand current services to include pre-college planning and parent involvement activities, including more mentoring, tutoring, and workshop oppurtunities for juniors, seniors, and parents to ensure that students take the steps necessary to be accepted into the college of their choice
Eastern
Community Colleges of Spokane (Spokane) - $25,000 to develop a bridge program connecting Institute for Extended Learning students to postsecondary education opportunities, including career exploration and workshops covering college success strategies and financial aid
Eastern Washington University (Cheney) - $22,500 to expand collaborative learning groups linking faculty, student facilitators, and learning process specialists with low-income, first-generation students
Northwest
R. Merle Palmer Minority Scholarship Foundation (Tacoma) - $15,000 to cover recruitment costs and support services provided to Palmer Scholars, who are low-income, underserved, and, in many cases, first-generation students of color to gain admission to and graduate from higher education
GirlsFirst, YWCA (Seattle) - $33,000 to develop an alumni component of the GirlsFirst program, which is focused on junior and senior high school girls and their parents. GirlsFirst provides an intensive three-week Summer Leadership Academy for girls of color entering high school and ongoing skill building, tutoring, mentoring, and goal-setting support
Rainier Scholars (Seattle) - $25,000 to support Academic Counseling and Support Services, the second step in a four-step program, that prepares students of color for success in college
Seattle Education Access (Seattle) - $25,000 to provide financial assistance, academic advising, career counseling, and advocacy for homeless or previously homeless youth and young adults who are pursuing postsecondary education
Summer Search Foundation (Seattle) - $10,000 to provide mentoring and college preparation support to low-income juniors and seniors
Treehouse (Seattle) - $15,000 to support Coaching-to-College, a program that teams foster youth with volunteer coaches who help the youth select and apply to college, seek out financial assistance, including scholarships, and link students with other support services
Cascadia Community College (Bothell) - $10,000 to maintain outreach services to residents of seven low-income housing complexes and to provide financial assistance to low-income residents who want to pursue higher education
Clover Park Technical College (Tacoma) - $31,736 to adapt college orientation materials, establish a peer mentoring program, and conduct a needs-assessment of students who drop out of college
Green River Community College (Auburn) - $26,940 to introduce a new approach to orienting and supporting low-income and first-generation students who require remedial courses in reading, writing, and math
Pacific Lutheran University (Tacoma) - $40,000 to support participation of 30 low-income students, who have been conditionally admitted to PLU in the 2005-2006 Summer Challenge Program
Shoreline Community College (Shoreline) - $21,269 to develop and pilot four new workshops and information sessions on the benefits and costs of postsecondary education and the financial resources available to college students and their families
Bellevue Community College (Bellevue) - $17,056 to develop a staff/faculty mentoring program targeted at low-income, first-generation, and/or disabled students
North Central
Central Washington University (Ellensburg) - $30,000 for development of a teacher training math program designed to enhance the skills of the high school math teachers in five rural high schools who do not have access to higher level math courses
Olympic
St. Martin’s University (Olympia) - $24,650 to initiate a nine-day summer bridge program for 25 first-generation and/or low-income entering freshmen
South Central
Heritage University (Toppenish) - $45,000 to provide basic college skills software, as well as the hardware and training to fully utilize these resources, aimed at improving WASL and WEST-B tests for low-income students
Yakima Valley Community College (Yakima & Grandview) - $27,840 for tutoring of YVCC Grandview students and for the development of a distance learning guide designed to familiarize distance-learning students with online processes and learning expectations