Highline Community College’s 14 Honors Scholars for the 2008-2009 academic year received $624,000 in financial aid and scholarship offers to continue their education, including Burien student Jennifer Anne Kemp.
The Honors Scholar program’s 70 graduates have earned a combined $2.4 million in scholarships and other financial aid since the program began in 2003.
“The 2008-2009 academic year has been a banner year for the Honors Scholar program,” said Barbara Clinton, the program’s adviser. “The entire group of graduates earned about 25 percent more in financial aid and scholarships than last year’s students.”
The program is open to all students who have 12 credits of college-level work with a 3.5 GPA or higher. The program prepares students for upper division courses, typically offered at a four-year university or college.
It has shaped Gates Millennium Scholars, USA Today Academic All-American, Coca Cola Gold Scholar and Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Scholarship and QuestBridge College Match Scholarship winners.
The 2009 scholars will graduate on June 11 and include Boreth (Terry) Long, a national Guistwhite Scholar winner.
The White Center resident was one of the 20 students across the nation who won the honor, a $5,000 scholarship for academic achievement, community service and participation in the national honor society for two-year colleges, Phi Theta Kappa.
Long emigrated from Cambodia to the United States four years ago and has found success in Highline’s Honors Scholar program.
“The program inspired and motivated me to do more in my classes than what was expected,” Long said. “I’ve learned so much and I am confident I will be successful when I transfer to a university.”
He plans on attending the University of Washington in fall 2009 and will graduate with an Associate of Applied Science degree in Electrical Engineering at Highline.
In addition, he has maintained a 3.87 GPA while working as a math tutor in Highline’s Math Resource Center and organizing the Fundraising to Make a Difference Club, a group that has helped raise about $500 each quarter to support children’s education and to fight trafficking of women in Cambodia.
In June 2009 he received one of the college’s top awards – the Shirley B. Gordon Academic Excellence Award – a $1,500 scholarship named in honor of Highline’s former president.
“The Honors Scholar program is a must for everyone who comes to Highline,” Long said. “It is a privilege to be part of such a program.”
This year’s 13 other Honors Scholars, by city, are:
- Auburn: Tierney Kuhn, Katherine S. Tacke
- Burien: Jennifer Anne Kemp
- Des Moines: David Ganett, Nari Kim, Mang (Jerry) Li, Kuan-Hung (Eleven) Liu, Robert Martin, Tuyet Anh Nguyen, Jerry Zarski
- Federal Way: Lei Lam (Selina) Chan
- Renton: Ashley L. Matsumoto
- Milton: Rikki-Rachelle Hinz
For more information about Highline’s Honors Scholar program and to read more success stories, visit http://flightline.highline.edu/honors/.
Highline Community College was founded in 1961 as the first community college in King County. With approximately 10,000 students and 350,000 alumni, it is one of the state’s largest institutions of higher education. The college offers a wide range of academic transfer and professional-technical education programs, with day, evening, online and weekend classes.
With the most diverse population of any college in Washington state, Highline takes a multicultural approach to education for the success of all its students and the prosperity of its surrounding communities. Alumni include former Seattle Mayor Norm Rice, entrepreneur Junki Yoshida, Washington state poet laureate Sam Green and even Scott Schaefer, Publisher/Editor of this here website.
According to the Highline School District, its students far surpass other districts in signing up for state scholarships.
Hundreds of Highline middle school students have applied for the state College Bound Scholarship, which pays for four years of college tuition, fees, and books for students who stay in school, stay out of trouble, and keep their grades up. Low-income students and students in foster care are eligible for the scholarship.
Statewide, only 29% of eligible students have signed up for the scholarship since it was announced last spring.
In Highline, 71% of eligible students applied.
At Pacific Middle School, 95% of the eligible students sent in applications. Principal Cecilia Beaman says she talked about the scholarship with students and parents at every opportunity. “When a parent came in to talk to me, I signed them up on the spot. As I saw students in the halls, I talked with them, handed them an application, and then dogged them,” she says. Teachers and counselors talked with individual students. A language tutor worked with Latino families to sign students up. “It was a team effort, and we were tenacious,” says Beaman.
Sylvester Middle School signed up 167 students, 82% of those eligible. At both Chinook and Cascade middle schools, well over half of qualifying students applied for the scholarship.
“Getting students to apply was a big priority for us, because getting kids prepared for college is our focus as a school system,” says Highline Superintendent John Welch. “Finances are a barrier for many of our families who want to send their children to college. The College Bound Scholarship removes that barrier, so we work very hard to make sure all our families take advantage of this opportunity.”
When students apply for the scholarship, they pledge to keep their grades above 2.0 GPA, graduate from high school, and be law-abiding citizens. As long as they still meet income requirements at graduation they receive the scholarship, which can be used at any state college or university.
