CAMDEN, N.J. (KYW Newsradio) — Students at Camden’s LEAP Academy University Charter School were promised a unique offer: free tuition to Rutgers University if they keep their grades up.
The Alfredo Santiago Endowed Scholarship program guarantees a full Rutgers education to LEAP students who maintain a 3.5 GPA and have no more than four unexcused absences a year.
LEAP founder Gloria Bonilla-Santiago established the scholarship in memory of her husband, who died in 1996.
“We’ll always have at least 20 [each year] that end up going to Rutgers, and that’s really important to me because part of why we set up the scholarship for Rutgers was because of our legacy. My husband and I both worked at Rutgers,” she said.
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“That incentive maintains the kids also to stay in that pipeline with good grades, good behavior — and also, not to lose it.”
Since 2005, more than 180 LEAP students have earned scholarships to attend college right down the street at Rutgers University.
The school’s 835 K-12 students were told of the free tuition promise during assemblies on Monday.
One recipient from LEAP’s class of 2010 was Jozian Molina, who has returned to LEAP as the school’s chief academic officer. The promise of a college scholarship can’t be underestimated, she said.
“It was extremely powerful. I knew from the moment I stepped foot into LEAP Academy that I would go to college,” she recalled.
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Seventh-grader Mekhi Coleman is already taking the offer seriously.
“It means a lot to me of how I have to get good grades and stuff,” Coleman said. “It’s not easy. It’s hard. But you always have to keep on trying and never give up.”