October 4, 2002
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Teachers and community volunteers will visit the homes of North Nashville fifth- and ninth-graders from 8 a.m. to noon on Saturday, Oct. 12, to encourage them to join Imagine College, formerly Project GRAD Nashville.
This is the fourth year for the community effort, “Walk for Success,” during which volunteers will meet with freshman students at Pearl-Cohn Comprehensive Business Magnet High School and fifth-grade students at W.A. Bass and McKissack middle schools to encourage them to join Imagine College, an education partnership of Vanderbilt University, Metro Public Schools and the Inner City Education Foundation.
Imagine College guarantees scholarship assistance to any student who graduates with a 2.5 grade point average from a participating high school. The program also provides teacher, student and family support to ensure students’ academic success from pre-K through high school. Since 1999, the program has served Pearl-Cohn Comprehensive Business Magnet High School and its feeder schools – Cockrill and Park Avenue elementary schools and W.A. Bass and McKissack middle schools.
Walk for Success volunteers will meet at three locations – Pearl Cohn High School and W.A. Bass and McKissack middle schools – at 8 a.m. for a brief orientation prior to the home visits.
Volunteers will discuss and review Imagine College’s learning covenants with the fifth-graders. Students and their parents sign the covenants pledging that they will work for academic success. The home visits to Pearl-Cohn freshmen are to ask them to commit to the terms of the scholarship guarantee.
Following the visits, families in the Pearl-Cohn Comprehensive High School community and volunteers are invited to attend a celebration luncheon from 11 a.m. to
2 p.m., featuring food, door prizes, and music.
Volunteers are still needed to make home visits. To volunteer, call 322-1543 or 322-1567.
For more information about Imagine College, visit www.imaginecollege.org.
Contact: Princine Lewis, 615-322-NEWS, princine.l.lewis@vanderbilt.edu