City Colleges Program Helps HWC Students
By Hector Morales
Staff Writer
Students at Harold Washington College can benefit from a scholarship program designed to help Chicago high school students who would like to receive free tuition and vouchers for the purchase of books and other materials.
The Chicago Star Scholarship is a program for Chicago Public Schools high school seniors that provides free tuition and books not covered by financial aid for up to three years at any City Colleges of Chicago. It applies to any degree or certificate program except the French Pastry Certificate.
The scholarship program started in the fall of 2015 and has provided more than $5 million in scholarship funds to CCC students, according to the Star Scholarship website.
Andres Medina, a Star Scholar at HWC in his third year of scholarship eligibility, finds that the scholarship has benefited him.
“The Star Scholarship is one of the best things that has happened to me in my academic career,” Medina said. “ I don’t think I would have been in nearly the same place if I went into a big university blindly.”
To qualify for the scholarship, CPS graduating students must have a grade point average of 3.0, enroll in a CCC degree or certificate program and meet test requirements.
A student must score either a 17 or higher on their English and math portions of the ACT, score 460 or higher on the English SAT and 440 or higher on the math SAT, or take a CCC placement exam to determine if they are “completion ready”.
To be completion ready means “a student’s test scores indicate he or she can take courses leading to college-level coursework and earn an associate degree within three years of enrolling at City Colleges,” according to the scholarship’s FAQ.
The Star Scholarship recipients have twice the graduation rate of the national average, according to the CCC website. Over 80 percent of Star Scholars projected to graduate this year will be first generation college attendees.
Star Scholars also have the benefits of the STAR Scholarship Transfer Program which partners with four-year colleges and universities to provide scholarships and other benefits to participants, according to CCC.
“Being a Star Scholar opens doors to even more opportunity. I was accepted into Phi Theta Kappa last year and was accepted into [their] national honor society just last month,” said Medina. “[It] feels good to be a Star Scholar since it’s unique to Chicago and its public schools.”
Medina added that the Star Scholarship “is a useful tool for pretty much anybody to save money and learn. Taking things slowly has helped me gain back the confidence and skills to do well in school.”
