Also read: Rutgers, education, high-school dropout crisis, Black, Latino

In response to New Jersey's growing high-school-dropout rates in low-income and urban communities, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, launched an aggressive initiative in October 2008: the Rutgers Future Scholars Program. It is designed to give promising, motivated seventh-graders educational opportunities.

Click here to read "How Is Rutgers University Using Diversity to Transform Learning & Society?"

Click here to watch "What Is the Rutgers South Africa Initiative?"

Rutgers President Richard L. McCormick pledged that students selected as Future Scholars from Camden, Newark, New Brunswick and Piscataway, N.J., who meet the university's admissions criteria will receive four years of free, no-loan tuition through grants and scholarships. The program includes on-campus summer and school-year classes and seminars, standardized-tests practice and in-school monitoring and tutoring.

This year, the ambitious initiative recruited its first class of 200 Future Scholars. The pledge includes bringing in an additional 200 Future Scholars each year hereafter, with the prospect of graduating the first class in 2017. To assure that these at-risk students meet the admissions criteria, Rutgers is raising funds to sustain a rigorous pre-college pipeline of support.

The program is already showing signs of success based on school-district and donor support--and the scholars' attitudes and performance. "I didn't think I had a future until I was selected to be a Rutgers Future Scholar," said Lamont Higgins, now an eighth-grader in a New Brunswick, N.J., school. Higgins credits the program for his motivation to earn A's and B's in every subject. The school's Assistant Superintendent Mary Egan concurs: "The outstanding activities Rutgers University created for these students have, in a short time, had a tremendous impact on their self-worth, academic achievement and goals."

Where Will Our Future Talent Come From?

Given the economic pressures to fill jobs from a homegrown pool of educated employees, the Rutgers Future Scholars Program has struck a nerve and addressed a serious need in the corporate and private sectors. In response, several organizations have invested in the initial phases of the program, including AT&T (No. 2 on The 2009 DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity® list), Brotherton Charitable Foundation, DiversityInc, the Fund for New Jersey, State Farm, Xerox (No. 35) and Merck Company Foundation (Merck & Co. is No. 8). Merck has invested $750,000 and DiversityInc Foundation donated $25,000 to fund the initial phase of research. This will help blueprint the Future Scholars Program with the intention of building a complete plan for implementation by other colleges and universities across the country.

"Rutgers University is attempting to incite a national movement in an effort to replicate the Future Scholars' mission of providing hope and opportunity to young people from underserved communities throughout the United States," says Aramis Gutierrez, director of Rutgers Future Scholars.

Private donors have reacted positively as well. Steve Colson, an entrepreneur in the construction industry, donated $100,000 to set up a Future Scholars Endowment. Colson recognizes the need to help these bright kids escape from the minefields of their communities and to support Rutgers.

The university anticipates that the program will have replicable components that will encourage other higher-education institutions to take a leadership role in improving graduation and college-attendance rates for those statistically at risk to drop out. The earlier such programs are introduced, the better.

Components of the initiative include research tools to track each entering student's progress over time: pre- and post-summer program surveys; Research Assessment Package for Schools; and ReadiStep skills' assessment piloted by the College Board and the Cultural Resilience Scale. Although still in its inaugural year, the Rutgers Future Scholars Program has already demonstrably changed the attitudes and hopes of the first group of middle-school students and their families. By embracing this mission and from research results and accountability-driven practices, Rutgers hopes to serve as a model for fellow institutions statewide and nationally. In partnerships with institutions, school districts and sponsors, there can be a transformation in the lives of low-income, talented students. Bleak futures can become bright and positively affect the lives of those who are more fortunate as well.

Megan Schramm-Possinger, Ph.D., is a researcher for the Rutgers Future Scholars Program.

DiversityInc CEO Luke Visconti is the co-chair of the fundraising committee for the Rutgers Future Scholars Program.
For more information or to help fund this initiative, e-mail Luke at lvisconti@DiversityInc.com

This article appeared in the May/June 2009 issue of DiversityInc magazine. Click here to read the digital version of this story.