Spring Break
Colleges look to boost minority enrollment
Issue date: 11/15/07
Out of this concern came the Baltimore Scholars Program, which has been running for the past three years. Enrollment from the Baltimore area has increased since then, with 120 to 135 applications per year and about 20 enrolling.
This rate has now reached a plateau, Conley said, because the University "needs to have a broader pipeline."
According to Conley, the process of getting ready for an education at as prestigious a university as Hopkins needs to start for disadvantaged students, whether from Baltimore or from anywhere else in the United States, at an earlier level.
He cited the Center for Talented Youth (CTY) as a good resource for students to get to know Hopkins and see that "they too could make it there one day."
Despite their success, CTY and Baltimore Scholars Program have not caused a rapid turnover in education statistics.
"The channel's still not wide enough," Conley said. He said that the answer lies in spreading the word about opportunities.
"What we really need to do is open this campus to Baltimore City kids who can come here and talk to college kids and see 'you can get here,' even if it's a different prestigious university they decide to go to and not Hopkins," he said.
CTY Communications Coordinator Matt Bowden cited the Next Generation Venture Fund as another way of recruiting students from all over the United States, not just in Baltimore, to an environment where they can learn and excel and get ready to attend a prestigious college.
Many of the students who attend CTY are from "economically depressed backgrounds and under-represented ethnic backgrounds," Bowden said.
"While we do not have such a targeted financial aid program [as the Baltimore Scholars Program] for other urban areas, we actively recruit underrepresented students from around the country," Conley said.
"We provide transportation and housing costs for economically disadvantaged students so they can attend one of our on-campus programs."
This rate has now reached a plateau, Conley said, because the University "needs to have a broader pipeline."
According to Conley, the process of getting ready for an education at as prestigious a university as Hopkins needs to start for disadvantaged students, whether from Baltimore or from anywhere else in the United States, at an earlier level.
He cited the Center for Talented Youth (CTY) as a good resource for students to get to know Hopkins and see that "they too could make it there one day."
Despite their success, CTY and Baltimore Scholars Program have not caused a rapid turnover in education statistics.
"The channel's still not wide enough," Conley said. He said that the answer lies in spreading the word about opportunities.
"What we really need to do is open this campus to Baltimore City kids who can come here and talk to college kids and see 'you can get here,' even if it's a different prestigious university they decide to go to and not Hopkins," he said.
CTY Communications Coordinator Matt Bowden cited the Next Generation Venture Fund as another way of recruiting students from all over the United States, not just in Baltimore, to an environment where they can learn and excel and get ready to attend a prestigious college.
Many of the students who attend CTY are from "economically depressed backgrounds and under-represented ethnic backgrounds," Bowden said.
"While we do not have such a targeted financial aid program [as the Baltimore Scholars Program] for other urban areas, we actively recruit underrepresented students from around the country," Conley said.
"We provide transportation and housing costs for economically disadvantaged students so they can attend one of our on-campus programs."
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