Promise Scholars
What’s better than free college? Free college with caring support and help to succeed.
For young people with financial challenges, or who have experienced homelessness, family crises or other setbacks, getting through college can seem like an impossible dream.
College of San Mateo promises that it’s not. CSM’s Promise Scholars Program provides not just free tuition but individualized counseling and practical help to roughly 950 students annually as of fall 2021. Promise Scholars are twice as likely as their peers to graduate on time and on budget. They know that a community has their backs.
“It’s life-changing in a way where I don’t feel so alone,” said Angeli Ong, CSM Class of ’21. Ong’s parents, both health professionals, moved from the Philippines to the United States to give their daughter a brighter future. Ong planned to enter nursing as their legacy.
“In Promise Scholars, my counselors challenged me: ‘Is that what you want to do, or is it what you think you have to do?’” she said. Now Ong is part of a strong community and helps shape campus culture as president of Katipunan, CSM’s new Filipinx club. She’ll transfer to California State University, East Bay in fall 2021 with the goal of becoming a licensed mental health therapist working with the Asian community.
“Promise is so helpful in learning how to put yourself out there,” Ong said. “That is how you are going to discover – or rediscover – yourself.”
Though CSM and other community colleges have always been open to all, the Promise Scholars model recognizes that it takes more than just an open door to achieve educational equity. There also has to be a set of structured supports backed by a welcoming and supportive community.
“We have to reach back with intentionality to our students and let them know they can do it,” said Tiffany Zammit, director of high school transition and dual enrollment at CSM.
Promise Scholars receive up to three years’ free tuition and fees, $750 yearly for books, free tutoring, career and academic counseling, food and transportation incentives, priority registration and more. Often, they have access to cohort-based classes where they can build their confidence and communal responsibility to learn.
In return, the Promise Scholars must enroll full-time in a degree or certificate program. They must attend monthly counseling sessions and other activities, and stay current on financial aid paperwork and their educational plan.
Promise Scholars come from all racial and ethnic backgrounds. Eighty percent are low-income, including some who have experienced homelessness and/or foster care. Nearly two-thirds are first-generation college students. When they gain preparation for well-paid jobs and tools for secure lives, they lift not just themselves but their families and communities.
“Community college is not just to get your degree and go,” Ong said. “You can shape your community; you can write a story for yourself.”
Locally, Promise Scholars started in 2016 at Skyline College. It is a full, licensed replication of the evidence-based City University of New York Accelerated Study in Associates Programs (ASAP) model that proved individualized counseling and support are as important as financial aid in improving community college graduation rates. In 2017, the San Mateo Community College District won a $1.5 million state Innovation Grant to extend the Promise program districtwide.
In 2020-21, the district was able to support about 65 percent of its first-time college students as Promise Scholars. In April 2021, phrasing its action as key to the post-COVID economic recovery, the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors voted to give the district $2 million from Measure K sales-tax funds that will extend the Promise Scholars program to 500 more students.
While the state funds a California Promise Program at all community colleges, it does not fully fund the three years of college and all the support services included in CSM’s Promise Scholars Program. CSM depends on community and corporate donors to fund its program in its current comprehensive form. Its goal is to support every student who qualifies. The payoff is helping empower more students to achieve their goals and in turn to inspire others.
Learn how to apply for Promise Scholars at CSM.
Help support the Promise Scholars program.
