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Schools

Scholarship a boost for family's first

By JOSE CARDENAS
Published December 11, 2006

ADVERTISEMENT [Times photo: Carrie Pratt] Natasha Otero, 30, is taking online classes at St. Petersburg College. She is the first in her family to attend college and wants to apply for the First Generation in College scholarship.

CLEARWATER - When she first gave college a try in Connecticut, Natasha Otero said, she might never have dropped out if she had gotten simple tips from her parents, such as how to take notes.

"I had a difficult time because I did not have the support system," said Otero, who is taking online classes at St. Petersburg College. "No one in my family had gone to college, so they could not help me."

Otero, 30, plans to attend classes at St. Petersburg College's Clearwater campus in the near future.

She also hopes to apply for a first-of-its-kind First Generation in College scholarship for Florida students whose parents or guardians did not receive a higher education.

State education officials estimated that there are more than 53,000 first-generation college students in Florida.

Through legislation passed this year, the state has allocated $5-million to community colleges for the scholarships.

But the money comes with a catch: The colleges must raise matching funds.

As a result, the foundations at St. Petersburg, Hillsborough Community and Pasco-Hernando Community colleges are hustling to meet a Dec. 31 deadline to raise the private funds that each needs to claim its share of matching funds.

The state will match whatever the colleges raise dollar for dollar, even if it's not the full amount for which they are eligible.

St. Petersburg College is eligible for $227,000 in matching funds and so far has raised about $40,000.

Pasco-Hernando is eligible for $105,000 and has raised about $30,000. Hillsborough can get $296,000 and has raised less than $100,000.

Adrienne Garcia, executive director of the Hillsborough Community College Foundation, said there is strong interest among donors to help first-generation students.

Usually, such donors want their donations endowed, which would not count toward this scholarship. But she hopes that the same willingness to help such students among other donors will help the college meet its goal.

"I think it's particularly important for community colleges because we have a lot of first-generation students that come here," Garcia said.

First statewide plan to help these students

Florida educators say they take pride in the state being a leader in developing a strong overarching program in which the state provides matching funds to colleges and universities that raise private money for a variety of purposes.

"I'm not aware of a statewide initiative and certainly not one of this magnitude," said Stacey Webb, the Florida Department of Education's assistant chancellor for community colleges and workforce education. "I think it's going to make a big difference in our system."

Last week, officials also announced that the Helios Education Foundation in Arizona donated two $5-million endowments for the first-generation scholarship. One endowment will be for Florida's 28 community colleges.

The other will be for Florida's 11 state universities. The state has allocated $6.5-million in first-generation scholarship money for universities, which also must raise private matching funds. The University of South Florida, for example, is eligible for $967,000.

The community college portion of the first-generation scholarship was embedded in the broader Dr. Philip Benjamin Matching Program for Community Colleges.

St. Petersburg College officials take particular pride in the name of the program because Benjamin, who died in 1998 at age 73, attended what was then St. Petersburg Junior College in the 1941.

He became a St. Petersburg optometrist who served 13 years on the college's board of trustees. During his tenure, the college established affirmative action policies. Later, he became the first chairman of the Florida Board of Community Colleges.

Though financial help for first-generation students might exist in other forms at some colleges and universities, there had never been a statewide organized effort targeting that population, officials said. It grew out of Gov. Jeb Bush's broader Access and Diversity Initiative earlier this year.

Going to college sets foundation for others

Boosters of the scholarship point to statistics indicating that young people whose parents did not go to college are less likely to attend.

"This is a way of targeting those students and saying, 'Let's break the cycle of not obtaining a higher education degree,' " said state Rep. Anitere Flores, R-Miami, who sponsored the legislation.

Otero, who is majoring in business and intends to become a certified public accountant, said her father has been retired since he was injured in Vietnam and her mother is a phlebotomist.

Now that she is the first in her family to pursue a college education, she's in a position to offer her nieces some advice. For example, she tells them to take math every year in high school and college - even though they might not need it to graduate - so they don't lose continuity on the subject.

"Being the first to go to college in your family, you're laying the foundation for generations to come," Otero said. "Once you lay that foundation, it's a lot easier for your children or your children's children."

Jose Cardenas can be reached at 727 445-4224 or jcardenas@sptimes.com.

[Last modified December 11, 2006, 06:14:04]