Spring Break
The Daily Orange37 attend SU through Say Yes
By Brian Hayden
Posted: 9/9/09, 1:42 AM EST Section: News
When Nathan Heffron was growing up, he used to walk his dog from his house in Syracuse's Skunk City neighborhood on the city's west side, up the hill to the Westcott Reservoir.
From there Heffron could look out over the city, including the Syracuse University area. He doubted whether he would be able to afford SU's ever-increasing tuition costs.
Now, from his residence hall on Mount Olympus, Heffron can see the neighborhood he grew up in. The reality that the Corcoran High School graduate is now a freshman with free tuition at the school he once used to stare at, is just beginning to sink in.
"I thought it was too good to be true," Heffron said. "It makes me want to make sure I do good."
Heffron joins 37 SU freshmen from the Syracuse City School District entering the university this fall on free tuition from a combination of grants and scholarships provided by the "Say Yes to Education" program. This is the first class of Say Yes students to enter SU.
Say Yes is a kindergarten-through-12th-grade district-wide initiative seeking to raise high school and college graduation rates. It includes an effort to bring free tuition to SCSD students who decide to attend one of the nearly 100 private and public colleges in the Northeast participating in the program. (Room and board is not included in the scholarships)
"The major interest in the Say Yes program is to enable more students from the inner city to go to quality private schools," said Christopher Walsh, director of the higher education compact program for Syracuse Say Yes. "Our intention is not to recruit students to SU, per se, but to get students to go to college."
Over 600 students are entering colleges this fall through the Say Yes program, said Dan Lowengard, SCSD superintendent.
Another SU freshman receiving free tuition is David Minney, a social work major who graduated from Fowler High School in May.
As Minney went through high school, he said he watched his class size dwindle from 400 during his freshman year, to about 100 when he graduated.
From there Heffron could look out over the city, including the Syracuse University area. He doubted whether he would be able to afford SU's ever-increasing tuition costs.
Now, from his residence hall on Mount Olympus, Heffron can see the neighborhood he grew up in. The reality that the Corcoran High School graduate is now a freshman with free tuition at the school he once used to stare at, is just beginning to sink in.
"I thought it was too good to be true," Heffron said. "It makes me want to make sure I do good."
Heffron joins 37 SU freshmen from the Syracuse City School District entering the university this fall on free tuition from a combination of grants and scholarships provided by the "Say Yes to Education" program. This is the first class of Say Yes students to enter SU.
Say Yes is a kindergarten-through-12th-grade district-wide initiative seeking to raise high school and college graduation rates. It includes an effort to bring free tuition to SCSD students who decide to attend one of the nearly 100 private and public colleges in the Northeast participating in the program. (Room and board is not included in the scholarships)
"The major interest in the Say Yes program is to enable more students from the inner city to go to quality private schools," said Christopher Walsh, director of the higher education compact program for Syracuse Say Yes. "Our intention is not to recruit students to SU, per se, but to get students to go to college."
Over 600 students are entering colleges this fall through the Say Yes program, said Dan Lowengard, SCSD superintendent.
Another SU freshman receiving free tuition is David Minney, a social work major who graduated from Fowler High School in May.
As Minney went through high school, he said he watched his class size dwindle from 400 during his freshman year, to about 100 when he graduated.
Be the first to comment on this story