Scott High School graduates Veronica Daniels and Aaliyah Armstrong are starting afresh at Central State University this fall thanks to a promise made nine months ago.
It was in January that the nonprofit organization HOPE Toledo — led by Ottawa Hills native Pete Kadens — announced plans to pay tuition, room, and board for every Scott graduating senior enrolling an in-state college.
No one expected a global pandemic would upend life within weeks of Mr. Kadens’ announcing his pledge to families packed into the Old West End high school. But while many milestones for graduating seniors were missed in the subsequent months — prom, commencement, one more relatively carefree summer before adulthood truly set in — Scott seniors still were able to take advantage of HOPE Toledo’s offer.
Miss Daniels, 18, said she always wanted to attend a historically black university. Prior to the HOPE promise, she considered North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University as well as Bethune-Cookman University, but she instead chose Central to avoid accumulating debt.
Now has the opportunity to pursue her hope of obtaining a bachelor’s degree in communications as well as perform in a collegiate marching band.
“I chose Central because it was an HBCU,” she said. “I came for the band.”
Her mother, Cherese Daniels, said the opportunity is giving Victoria the chance to pursue her post-secondary education debt-free, which will assist her financially following graduation. It also means the mother doesn’t need to rack up thousands of dollars in student loans to help her daughter pursue her dream.
“It’s important and appreciated that Mr. Kadens did this for the students because going to college and trying to get a degree is very expensive and a lot of times after graduation people struggle to pay the student loans back so to be able to go to college debt-free is a wonderful thing,” she said.
When Mr. Kadens, who now lives in Chicago, announced his pledge in January, he outlined a few parameters. He would pay college tuition, room, board, and fees for graduating Scott seniors who want to attend a university or trade school.
The offer was applicable for any accredited Ohio public college, university, or trade school, as well as Eastern Michigan University. Mr. Kadens also extended the same offer to one parent or legal guardian of each graduating student, assuming the parent’s school was within 45 miles of Scott High (or was Eastern Michigan University).
In January Mr. Kadens told The Blade he expected the pledge to cost him roughly $3.5 million to see the students complete their degrees.
DeAnna Dixon and daughter AriAnna Robinson have since started classes at the University of Toledo and Owens Community College, respectively.
Ms. Dixon, 42, said the chance to return to school was once a far-fetched dream.
“I’ve always wanted to have my degree. Especially going through life and working, I’ve been passed up for opportunities because I didn’t have that degree,” she said.
She added that she’s most grateful that her daughter now has the opportunity to select her career path post-high school.
Still, the road to the fall semester’s start was not easy for anyone, as the joy of Mr. Kadens’ announcement was followed by a plethora of uncertainties ushered in by the coronavirus pandemic. In spite of K-12 schools shutting down in-person instruction last spring, Toledo Public Schools administration and representatives of HOPE Toledo said the tuition pledge persevered and families have worked relentlessly to take full advantage of the opportunity.
Prior to the pandemic, Scott High was partnering with local and in-state universities to host meetings and college fairs. HOPE Toledo officials said program directors and Scott High staff continued to meet with families via Zoom to ensure all deadlines for applications were met.
Ms. Dixon said the tuition pledge has been like a light peering through the darkness of the pandemic.
“With COVID happening there’s a lot of anxiety and extra pressure going on with life in itself and to look back to that moment on Jan. 29; it shines a bright light at the end of the tunnel that no matter how crazy life can get, that God still gives me hope. The name HOPE Toledo means more to some of us than anybody else and I’m sure I can speak for all the families when I say that,” she said.
Scott High School counselor Mike Mercurio said 70 students have completed the process and will be attending a post-secondary institution either this fall or the upcoming spring semester. Of that total, roughly 25 to 30 students are going to Owens Community College, University of Toledo, Bowling Green State University, and local trade programs.
Mr. Mercurio added that 123 students graduated in May whereas the high school averaged a maximum of 100 to 105 students in the previous years.
“It’s a much larger group going elsewhere because they have the housing paid for and can now afford to do this. The percentage of students attending college for the 2020 graduating class went up nearly 20 percent, which is huge. Our kids have an opportunity and are taking advantage of it. ”
John Jones, a HOPE Toledo representative, said his organization is committed to its pledge of seeing students don their cap and gowns after earning a post-secondary degree or certificate. He said the program has set academic guidelines — which includes maintaining a minimum 2.0-grade point average and attending monthly meetings with their designated campus and HOPE Toledo advisors — to ensure that students are taking advantage of the opportunity.
“Pete Kadens has delivered on the promise he offered on Jan. 29. The kids are in school, bills are being paid, students are starting. This is clearly the beginning, we have to get the kids through school,” Mr. Jones said. “I told our students ‘it’s beautiful to get you to school but it means absolutely nothing if we don’t get you through school.’ At the end of the day this about getting them through school.”
Mr. Jones said the program has dedicated its efforts to ensuring students transition well and has partnered with colleges and local agencies to ensure students' needs are met. Additional financial help has been made to students, too, including reimbursements up to $500 for computers to ensure students are equipped for hybrid learning.
“We’ve been very intentional with working with the colleges as to how we will get these kids through school. I’m not diluted to think that all of our students starting out now will graduate in four years. But we’d love to see it and are driving towards having a better persistency rate and on-time graduation rate than what these schools averages are. We think that if we can remove one barrier which is fees, the key focus for our students will be getting grades and adjusting but money won’t be a problem,” he said.
First Published September 6, 2020, 1:30 p.m.
