‘College Day’ visit in Dallas turns into college acceptance for Fort Worth ISD students
The Fort Worth kids touring Paul Quinn College were told this was an ordinary “College Day,” and they spent Thursday on the campus blissfully unaware of the life-altering surprise that awaited them late in the afternoon.
After their daylong visit, the more than 400 students from Fort Worth ISD schools were told they had been accepted to Paul Quinn College, along with two family members.
Paul Quinn College President Michael J. Sorrell made the announcement early Thursday evening during a break between women’s and men’s basketball games at the school’s home arena.
The reaction was not what you might expect, which was a surprise Christmas and a birthday present from the same box.
The students sitting in the bleachers didn’t quite realize what they were just told. Most of them looked at each other with the confused expression of, “What did he say?”
“I had no clue it was coming,” said Trenton Gardner, a senior at Wyatt High School. “It was a big surprise to me.”
The official number of FWISD students attending the day’s events at Paul Quinn College was 408; they are all high-achieving seniors from Dunbar, Eastern Hills, Wyatt, Young Men’s Leadership Academy and Young Women’s Leadership Academy.
All were recommended for this program by their respective school principals.
“It takes a moment for it to register,” Sorrell said after the announcement. “This is just Step 1.”
The announcement is part of an ambitious partnership program with the aforementioned five FWISD schools and the nation’s first and only urban work college to try to counter the often crippling effects of generational poverty that so many students face from lower income areas.
This program has been in the works for about a year.
Students with a 3.0 grade point average and higher are eligible; those students will have the chance to select two family members to start their respective college journeys at Paul Quinn College: mom, dad, brother, sister, etc.
“I think that’s the part that will take some time for them to unpack,” said Sorrell, who worked in the President Clinton White House before he became the president at Paul Quinn.
The respective family members can take online courses, or another credential and upskilling programs through the school.
The program provides continuing education to “upskill,” and certify people in a variety of fields.
The concept is not only to encourage high school seniors who maybe previously thought their formal education ended with a high school diploma, but also paves the path to college, and higher education in general for their entire families.
This program takes away obstacles, and makes it easier for a larger group of people to become college students.
“We are starting the conversation about college and continuing educations now much earlier; starting in elementary school,” FWISD chief of schools Jerry Moore said. “It’s not just about the diploma anymore.”
Most of the students in this program are eligible for Pell Grants, which will take care of the majority of the costs.
If they enroll in the work program with the school, they could potentially make $10,000, and leave the school year with money in their pockets.
Paul Quinn College is a Historically Black College in south Dallas, and the oldest HBCU west of the Mississippi River. It’s a private school that was founded in 1872 by members of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
