Iredell County Crosby Scholars Community Partnership

This is a college access program through which public school students begin to prepare academically, financially, and personally for successful college admission as early as middle school. We are partnered with Goodwill of Northwest North Carolina and modeled after the successful Crosby Scholars Community Partnership in Forsyth County, which graduates 100% of its seniors and sends 98% of its graduates on to access post-secondary education. Every public sixth through tenth grade student in Iredell County is eligible to apply to our program. Once admitted, students must fulfill a few requirements each year to remain active in the Crosby Scholars program. Middle school students must attend a Crosby academy, complete community service hours, and follow school policies (i.e., no out-of-school suspensions). High school students have additional activities such as college visits or college fairs, advising meetings, and continued community service which are required to progress through the program. Seniors who complete the program and graduate as a Crosby Scholar are eligible to apply for scholarships and grants through our program. Student enrollment in Fall of 2023 totaled 1,774 students. Of those, 1,466 students received credit for attending our academy workshops. 1,432 of our students completed their community service requirement and together have provided 10,156 volunteer work hours. In our ninth year, our student pool included 243 Scholars in our sixth senior class. Iredell Crosby Scholars provides college access training to parents, guardians, and volunteers so that each senior has a 1:1 advisor to meet with throughout the school year for assistance with the college process. In addition to the individual meetings, senior academy workshops were held to help with essay writing, college applications, standardized test taking, understanding financial aid, and general preparation for the freshman year of college. In 2023, the program awarded $23,050 in the form of scholarships to a total of 21 students. Need-based grants totaling $37,092 were awarded to 47 students. These grants were available to new graduates and continuing college students who graduated from our program and still demonstrated need and who maintained at least a 2.0 college GPA.