Students in Colorado Springs School District 11 now have more access to college due to a new collaboration between the Common Black College Application and the school district.
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This program gives students the opportunity to apply to HBCUs and colleges across the country for free. The new partnership plans to expand the rates of graduating seniors in the District.
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Scott Mendelsberg, Area Superintendent for Colorado Springs School District 11 said to KRDO that he looks forward to giving students interested in applying to attend HBCUs.
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“Historically black colleges have been around forever and we have students who we believe would be interested in knowing about them and maybe even going to these schools,” Mendelsberg said
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Mendelsberg acknowledges that the district has many post-secondary opportunities in Colorado Springs and the state in general but explains, the idea behind this new partnership with common Black College Application is to allow every student to explore a new environment and culture
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Mendelsberg believes the partnership will help District 11 students cover the cost of college applications, expand their school options, and possibly, more scholarship funding. Most HBCUs are located in the eastern U.S. and the South, which potentially means larger scholarship opportunities for students applying.
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“There’s really no HBCUs west of the Mississippi,” he said. “There’s a lot of scholarship dollars that they will apply to these applications when they meet these students. … This happened in Denver and I would expect nothing less in the Springs — [students were offered] as much as presidential scholarships, full-ride scholarships, to go to HBCUs.”
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Robert Mason, President, and Founder of the Common Black College Application said he was enthused when first receiving the request to collaborate from District 11. He also said his main goal has been to get more Colorado students of color into HBCUs.
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“Typically we will have couple hundred students that will go viral every year that will receive multiple acceptance letters and hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars in scholarships and I can only imagine, hope, and assume frankly that the same thing will happen in Colorado Springs,” Mason said.
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Students interested will not have to pay an application fee after the decision to waive the $20 application fee.
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“What we want to do as a district is illuminate this process and procedures and make sure we are doing things by design and instead of it happens just by circumstance,” Mendelsberg said.
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“There’s a great big world out there, and we want to send the message that, if you want to go to Pikes Peak [State College], that’s wonderful,” he said. “But if you want to get outside, you’re not bound by anything, and that’s the most powerful part of all this.”
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Students can now go to the Common Black College Application and submit an application letter that will be sent to 67 HBCUs and colleges in its system.
