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Students at a Paying for College Bus Tour stop, Reading PA

The Sallie Mae Fund joins Congressman Chaka Fattah, Mayor John F. Street and the Philadelphia School District’s Office of Career and College Awareness to help Philadelphia students gain access to higher education

Fund provides $400,000 grant, hosts ‘Paying for College’ events to support CORE Philly initiative

Philadelphia, Pa., Feb. 5, 2004—The Sallie Mae Fund, a charitable organization sponsored by Sallie Mae, today announced its commitment to the CORE (College Opportunity Resources for Education) Philly Scholarship Program, which provides last-dollar awards to help Philadelphia college-bound students gain access to higher education. As part of the partnership, The Sallie Mae Fund is underwriting the administrative costs of the scholarship program and is committing resources to educate Philadelphia families about the availability of financial aid.

CORE Philly, an initiative developed by Congressman Chaka Fattah, Mayor John F. Street and the Philadelphia School District’s Office of Career and College Awareness, will make up to $10 million in scholarship dollars available to qualified seniors graduating from Philadelphia’s 68 public high schools this year to attend a Pennsylvania state-funded college or university in fall 2004.

To kick off the CORE Philly application process, The Sallie Mae Fund is hosting 12 free “Paying for College” workshops throughout the city on Feb. 6, 7, 19 and 20 to help high school seniors and their parents complete the necessary application forms required for the CORE Philly Scholarship Program. Applicants must complete both a CORE Philly scholarship application by Feb. 27, and a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), the application that all college-bound students must complete to begin the financial aid process for college.

“The Sallie Mae Fund is pleased to support such a unique partnership to increase Philadelphia families’ access to higher education,” said Susan Corsini, chairman, The Sallie Mae Fund. “Through these last-dollar scholarships, and by raising awareness about the availability of financial aid, we hope a college education will be within the reach of more Philadelphia high school students.”

Of the 10,000 graduates from Philadelphia public high schools each year, 3,500 go on to pursue a higher education. A study commissioned last year by The Sallie Mae Fund showed that lower income families, who most need information about financial aid for college, have the least information about how to pay for higher education. Eighty percent of public high school students in Philadelphia participate in the free-lunch program.

To fill this information divide, The Sallie Mae Fund will host nine additional workshops throughout the year for ninth through 11th grade students and their families to create awareness for the CORE Philly Scholarship Program and other financial aid resources.

“We are pleased to have The Sallie Mae Fund lending a hand in the inauguration of the only city-wide college scholarship initiative in the country,” said Congressman Fattah.

For more information on the CORE Philly Scholarship Program, including application and guideline information, and a listing of free “Paying for College” workshops, visit www.corephilly.org.

For more information on the CORE Philly Scholarship Program, including application and guideline information, visit www.corephilly.org. To RSVP for the Paying for College workshop, call 1-877-840-8224.

The Sallie Mae Fund, a charitable organization sponsored by Sallie Mae, achieves its mission—to increase access to a post–secondary education for America's students—by supporting programs and initiatives that help open doors to higher education, prepare families for their investment, and bridge the gap when no one else can. For more information visit www.salliemaefund.org.

CORE (College Opportunity Resources for Education) Philly Scholarship, is a nonprofit organization that unites funding from the School District and the City to award “gap” college scholarships to high school seniors from Philadelphia public schools, including participating charter schools.