Chipola’s Take Stock In Children Program Recognized for Excellence
Chipola College’s Take Stock in Children program has garnered the Take Stock Luminary Award and Gold Level of Excellence. This is the third consecutive year the local TSIC program led by Student Services & Mentor Coordinator Debra Perdue has received the Gold Level and second consecutive year they have received the Luminary Award.
The Excellence Award and service honor were announced at the annual Take Stock Student Success Summit in Orlando on Oct. 12-14. The Luminary Award is only given to programs which exceed Take Stock in Children’s targeted goals in areas involving mentoring, college success coach visits and college readiness workshops.
The Chipola College TSIC is the lead agency for TSIC in Calhoun, Holmes, Jackson, Liberty and Washington counties. In these five counties, TSIC scholars are chosen in ninth grade through an application and selection process based upon financial need, academic achievement, good character, community involvement remaining crime/gang/drug/alcohol free, and maintaining a 2.0 grade point average. When the scholar meets these requirements, they are awarded a two-year Florida Prepaid college tuition scholarship upon high school graduation. Students are matched with a mentor and meet with them each week throughout high school. The TSIC mentors offer encouragement, advice, and a sympathetic ear. “We could not offer this opportunity to our students without the dedicated mentors. Our mentors range from principals, lawyers, doctors and teachers to retired professionals. Mentoring paired with the additional support systems insure our TSIC scholars are successful” said Mrs. Perdue. Going on to talk about the awards she said, “The bar is high. We are making Luminary and Gold a tradition that we want to maintain. It measures the level of our Take Stock students receiving the mentoring and college success content that are important, those are two of the requirements of reaching the Luminary and Gold Level for the program.” Chipola College’s TSIC program currently maintains 55 students, including 25 graduating seniors.
Chipola Foundation works directly with the Stanley G. Tate Florida Prepaid College Foundation S.T.A.R.S. (Scholarship Tuition for At-Risk Students) Program for dollar-for-dollar matching funds on the purchase of these scholarships which doubles our donors’ investment. Donations toward TSIC scholarships are accepted throughout the year and mentors are always being recruited for students. Anyone interested in donating toward TSIC scholarships should contact the Chipola College Foundation at 850-718-2445 or https://www.chipola.edu/foundation. To become a volunteer mentor, contact Debra Perdue at 850-718-2428 or perdued@chipola.edu.