Tacoma Housing Authority Leads in Scholarship Enrollment

Tacoma Housing Authority and Tacoma Public Schools, along with a list of partnering agencies, deserve a round of applause for a significant accomplishment.  Effectively 100% of THA eighth grade students have signed the College Bound Pledge, which qualifies them for the College Bound Scholarship.  The effort to reach 100% is a part of the “THA’s Education Project,”: http://www.tacomahousing.org/programs_services/education.html an initiative built to help kids in THA housing succeed in school.

The College Bound Scholarship will ensure that qualifying students have tuition covered, plus $500 a year for books at any of the state’s public colleges.  In order to qualify, students must meet income requirements, graduate from a Washington State high school with a 2.0 or better, and stay out of trouble with the law; and they must sign up for it in the seventh or eighth grade.  The scholarship gives students and families the security that they will have tuition covered early enough that they can make positive choices in high school to prepare them to succeed in post-secondary school.  THA’s Education Program is set up to help them do just that – providing computer labs, tutoring and mentoring opportunities, summer programs, and plans for a public library in Salishan.

The scholarship is no small deal for the students and families enrolled, and 100% is no small feat for the already busy staff.  Over the past couple years, THA has led Tacoma in the percentage of qualified students enrolled, and both Tacoma and THA have far surpassed state-wide percentages, reaching 100% this year, while the rest of the state lags at 75%:

Good work THA and TPS.