Clatsop Community College
1653 Jerome, Astoria OR 97103
For immediate release
Contact: Nadine Faith (503) 338-2306
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CCC’s Talent Search Program Awarded Full Funding

The US Department of Education will continue to fund Clatsop Community College’s Educational Talent Search program through 2010. Talent Search Program Director Mary Graham received notice this week that the program’s grant application was approved, which will fund the program in full in the amount of $297,790 annually.

The Educational Talent Search Program serves over 600 students in Clatsop County high schools and middle schools each year. Two thirds of the program’s participants are first-generation college bound or low-income students. Working with students between the sixth and twelfth grades, Talent Search assists in areas such as such as study skills and tutoring, and for older students, financial aid applications, academic advising, college visits and SAT and ACT workshops. A Talent Search coordinator is in area schools four days a week, along with after school and weekend programs.

“Talent Search students are three times more likely than other students who meet that same criteria to go on to post-secondary education,” Graham said.

The Talent Search Program has been at CCC for 13 years, with funding coming in four- year cycles. This year will mark the program’s fourth cycle at CCC. Graham explained that the program at CCC was lucky to survive this year, as over 70 Talent Search programs nationwide were denied grant funding this cycle. CCC’s grant proposal received 99 out of 100 possible points, covering seven different areas.

“Those programs were strong as well,” Graham said. “But we met our goals and objectives consistently.”

Graham also directs CCC’s Upward Bound program, another 100 percent federally funded program that increases the success of area high school students by helping them build a vision for the future, graduate from high school, enter college and complete a bachelor’s degree.

For more information about CCC’s Educational Talent Search or Upward Bound programs, contact Mary Graham (503) 325-2898.