The foundation idea emerged. He also had watched several fellow Vikings unable to read a playbook assigned by a coach. Such failure is compounded by poverty, discrimination, low literacy and, often for refugees, no English at all. College scholarships for high school graduates are a tool. That way a young child with no thought of higher education has an experience with someone in college.
Financial aid benefits the college student directly, and that's important.
But the longer-range impact may be for younger children in formative years. About 6,000 children got attention last year. They brought different backgrounds and experiences, but a primary focus - to judge this year's nearly 600 applications for an estimated 450 scholarships to be awarded in June. They divvied up the applications, so that each was read by at least two people. Last week, the applications still remained in stacks in the Pages' living room.