Bruce Casolari Rainier Scholars Phone: 206.228.8260 [email protected]
SEATTLE -- Rainier Scholars—a long-term academic development program for children of color in the Seattle Area—has received a $575,000 grant, committed over five years, from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The grant will enable more minority students to participate in this groundbreaking program that puts pre-middle school students through rigorous training, then supports them through high school and into the college years.
Rainier Scholars is a program developed to foster a new generation of multi-cultural leaders through academic excellence. “We are very proud of the success of Rainier Scholars to date and this grant will enable us to build Rainier Scholars into an important educational force in Seattle,” says Bruno Casolari, the executive director of Rainier Scholars.
The mission of Rainier Scholars is to develop the leadership potential of able young people from segments of society under-represented in the leadership pool from which all of our major institutions draw. The program is based around creating a stimulating educational environment early in the child’s scholastic career, then fostering each individual’s growth through counseling and support through college graduation.
Seattle area children of color who are reading at grade level in the fifth grade, based on their WASL reading scores, are invited to apply to the program. Once accepted, they participate in a rigorous 14-month academic program commencing the summer before sixth grade. Students are then placed in advanced learning programs within the Seattle Public Schools and/or independent schools. Students and their families continue to receive academic, social and psychological support through high school, along with internship opportunities and guidance through the college application process.
“Our hope is to empower promising children of color by giving them access to the best academic opportunities the greater Seattle area has to offer,” says Bob Hurlbut the founder of Rainier Scholars. The programs offered by Rainier Scholars are based on three key philosophies:
1) Early Intervention – establishing a student’s proclivity for academic excellence 2) Rigorous content – preparing the student for later academic and personal challenges 3) Comprehensive in nature – offering support to the whole child and where necessary the family.
The early results of Rainier Scholars’ programs are impressive—of the 52 students who graduated from the first class in September 2003, 20 were placed in advanced learning programs in Seattle Public schools, while 19 were placed in independent schools around Seattle.
“Four years I tried to get my child into APP; they always said no. After being in Rainier Scholars he got in and is doing great,” said the parent of a student in the APP program at Washington Middle School.
“I knew she had the ability, but we didn’t know how to take it to the next step,” said the parent of a child who is now attending the Bush school.
Each year Rainier Scholars recruits 60 additional students to participate in the program. By 2008, when the first class of Rainier Scholars students is ready for college, there will be 420 students enrolled in the program.
“We have a lot of capacity building to do, both at the program and organizational levels. The grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation represents a long-term commitment to us as an organization as we grow…we’re very proud of that,” says Casolari.