College attendance by Laurens County high school graduates has increased, because of the new Laurens County Future Scholarship program. That was the consensus of comments made in a report on the program to the Laurens Rotary Club yesterday.
Jeff Field, who is Chair of the Board of Directors of the Laurens County Development Corporation, explained that the Future Scholarship program is a “stop-gap” program, which ensures that all Laurens County residents who’ve just completed high school can attend their first two years of college with tuition paid. After students have filed for any available state and national scholarships, the Future Scholarship program will pay remaining costs of tuition. Jeff Field said that former Laurens County Chamber of Commerce President Greg Alexander and Jon Coleman from the LCDC went to Bristol, Tennessee and saw how such a program helped increase college attendance there, with a corresponding dramatic increase in salaries for local residents. Field gave examples projecting possible increases here. He said Laurens County was the first in South Carolina with such a program. Meanwhile, it’s expanding here. Greenwood County has now started such a program and Abbeville County is working toward a program there.
USC-U Laurens Location Director Matt Dean gave statistics showing how the Future Scholarship program has helped double students beginning their college studies there. Josh Black, Vice President for Admissions and Communications with Piedmont Technical College, also shared statistics showing a dramatic increase in the number of students starting at Tec, right out of high school.
Jeff Field passed out contribution cards, encouraging local citizen involvement in supporting the Laurens County Future Scholarship program.
Among Rotarians listening to yesterday’s presentation was Ernie Segars, who is now retired after a long tenure as Laurens County Supervisor. He said now is budget time for the county, and County Council should be asked to do better with the county’s support of Higher Education. He said the current one-mill of revenue is not sufficient support on behalf of county students. Of the money raised from that one mill each year, 90% goes to Piedmont Tech and 10% to the Laurens Campus of USC-U.
