St. Stephen's Episcopal School: Academics

St. Stephen's Episcopal School, Breakthrough Austin, and the Emerging Scholars Fund launch partnership to aid low-income, first-generation college-bound students

The Emerging Scholars Fund was founded in 2008 by Carolyn and Jack Long based on the simple principle that education truly is the great equalizer in American society.

While children from relatively affluent families with a familial history of attending college often have access to the high-quality education afforded by schools like St. Stephen's and selective four-year colleges, equally talented children from low-income families without a tradition of attending college are often blocked from high academic achievement.

The Emerging Scholars Fund believes removing these financial barriers not only benefits the individual students, but also helps keep the American Dream of socioeconomic mobility alive and well in time when advanced education is becoming increasingly necessary in order to achieve career success.

Recognizing that in an increasingly knowledge-based economy, success depends on an outstanding education, St. Stephen's, Breakthrough Austin, and the recently formed Emerging Scholars Fund have joined together to provide financial assistance for the education of high-academic-potential students from low-income families who will be first-generation college graduates.

Under the first phase of this program, students who have successfully completed the Breakthrough Austin middle school program and gain admission to St. Stephen's will be guaranteed adequate funding for four years of high school at St. Stephen's and four years of college.

The goal of the partnership is to remove the financial barriers to success for first-generation college-bound youth from low-income households. While these students will face many challenges on the road from entering St. Stephen's as a ninth grader to walking across the stage with a college diploma, lack of financial resources should not be one of those challenges for students participating in this program.

According to a recent update to a 2006 report by the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance, “Mortgaging Our Future: How Financial Barriers to College Undercut America’s Global Competitiveness,” as many as 3.2 million college-ready students will forgo a bachelor’s degree this decade because of financial barriers. According to the new data, four-year enrollment rate among low-income students who took Algebra II dropped to 40% in 2004, down from 54% in 1992, while enrollment rates among low-income students who took trigonometry fell from 73% to 55% over the same period.

The report discloses that college entry and participation rates of lower-income students continue to lag far behind rates for middle and upper-income students. In response to excessive unmet financial need, low-income students often must attend school part-time, work long hours, and borrow heavily to finance higher education, lowering the probability that these students will complete their degrees.

The Emerging Scholars Fund is providing the financial resources to fund up to 12 students participating in the Breakthrough Austin program through four years of high school at St. Stephen's and four years of “gap” funding at any public college or university in Texas.

Visit the Breakthrough Austin website.

An additional seven Breakthrough Austin students currently enrolled at St. Stephen's will also be eligible for college gap funding. Gap funding is the difference between financial aid offered by a college and the financial need of the family. College gap funding for attending private colleges or public colleges outside of Texas is offered subject to a funding cap.

While many independent high schools and colleges offer financial aid, for a low-income family without direct experience in navigating the complicated financial aid process, the prospect of finding adequate funding can seem like an impossible dream. The unique aspect of the Emerging Scholars support is that it spans eight years from high school through college and is dependent only on the student remaining in good standing in school and with the Breakthrough program.

From its founding in 1950, St. Stephen's has been a leader in making a high-quality high school education for academically gifted students available to students without regard to ethnicity or family income. St. Stephen's was the first coed Episcopal boarding school in the nation and the first integrated boarding school in the South.

Nearly a third of recent graduating seniors have been students of color. St. Stephen’s financial aid budget as a percentage of tuition is already among the highest in its peer group and will be enhanced further by the support of the Emerging Scholars Fund under this partnership.

Breakthrough Austin provides a path to college, starting in middle school, for low-income students who will be first-generation college graduates. The program admits students as 6th graders and makes a six-year commitment to helping them graduate from high school and enter college.

Breakthrough admitted its first class in 2002, and currently serves more than 240 students in grades seven through twelve. Their goal is for at least 95% of our students to graduate from high school and for at least 85% of them to go straight to college.

Each of the three organizations involved in this partnership brings unique skills, history, and resources to a common goal – helping talented students who might otherwise “fall through the cracks” achieve their dreams and, in the process, contribute to a healthier society in which the American Dream remains a reality for families from all walks of life.