March 30, 2007 Grant part of $10 million national initiative to help high-achieving, low-income students enter college and combat the "loss" of four million bachelor's degrees

The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation awarded a $1 million grant to Loyola College in Maryland as part of a nationwide initiative aimed at significantly increasing college enrollment and graduation among low-income high school and community college students.

Following in the tradition of the AmeriCorps and Teach for America programs, the College Advising Corps initiative will recruit and train Loyola seniors to work full time as advisers for one to two years following graduation. Loyola College will implement a college-advising program in high schools throughout Maryland with low college-going rates and large numbers of low-income students.

The program will provide one-on-one advising to a total of 7,400 students over four years. The Loyola program is based on a successful model devised by the University of Virginia and funded by the Foundation.

The goal is to combat the staggering rates of college-qualified, low-income high school graduates who fail to earn bachelor's degrees by providing college admission and financial aid guidance to disadvantaged students. The U.S. Department of Education estimates that four million potential college degree recipients have been "lost" during the past two decades. As the Foundation's research reveals, among these students are many of America's top-performing, lower-income students.

"We are squandering a huge national resource when millions of America's best high school graduates never get to college, or fail to advance beyond a two-year community college program," said Foundation Executive Director Matthew J. Quinn. "Our Foundation is committed to addressing the college enrollment gap by providing crucial information to promising students facing financial barriers."

Lack of information about admissions and financial aid is a significant barrier to college for low-income students -- who are much less likely than their counterparts in wealthy communities to have access to SAT preparation, college application guidance and information about financial aid. On average there is only one high school counselor for every 488 American public high school students.

"Colleges and universities need to focus on removing barriers to achievement while also providing the tools for individuals to fulfill their potential," said Loyola President Rev. Brian Linnane, S.J. "This program will change the lives of thousands of Maryland students who need information and support to achieve their educational goals.

"I commend and thank the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation for creating this vital program, which is very much in keeping with Loyola's Jesuit mission to extend educational opportunity while also serving the broader community."

The groundbreaking "College Guide" program, funded by the Foundation at the University of Virginia, places recent college graduates in communities where college-going rates are below the state average, to help students plan for and complete the college application process. This program was recently expanded to include counseling for community college students interested in transferring to four-year institutions. Recent Cooke Foun dation-funded research also underscores the importance of personal transfer counseling for low-income students who attend community college and the need to increase transfer advising on community college campuses.

"This innovative approach has succeeded in Virginia with notable increases in applications to colleges in high schools were the guides work," said Josh Wyner, Vice-President of Programs for the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation. "At one Virginia high school, we saw a 23 percent jump in the college admissions acceptance rate."

"Now low-income students in Maryland will get access to much-needed guidance from mentors fresh out of college who can really inspire them," he added.

The other grant recipients are Brown University, Franklin and Marshall College, Pennsylvania State University, Tufts University, the University of Alabama, the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Missouri, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Utah. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, in partnership with the National College Access Network, will also create a National College Advising Corps Coordinating Office to support the development of the grants and encourage other universities to start similar programs.

Earlier this year, the France-Merrick Foundation awarded a $1 million grant to support the construction of the College's planned Intercollegiate Athletic Complex. To find out more about the France-Merrick grant, click here.

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The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation is a private, independent foundation established in 2000 by the estate of Jack Kent Cooke to help young people of exceptional promise reach their full potential through education. It focuses in particular on students with financial need. The Foundation's programs include scholarships to undergraduate, graduate and high school students, and grants to organizations that serve high-achieving students with financial need.