Tufts and the Massachusetts Campus Compact (MACC) received a $1 million grant from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation last month to broaden access to college for low-income students.
The money from the grant will go toward creating a College Advising Corps at Tufts that will train seniors to become college advisers for one or two years after graduation, according to a press release issued by the Cooke Foundation.
The program's goal will be to help the overwhelming number of college-qualified high school students who fail to earn bachelor's degrees because of a lack of admissions and financial aid guidance.
Currently, there is an average of only one high school counselor for every 488 public school students, according to the release.
Over the next few years, program participants will reach out to thousands of these students.
According to Elizabeth Morgan, the director of youth programs at the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, which employs the estate of the late billionaire Jack Kent Cooke to help promising young students, Tufts was a prime candidate for the grant.
"Not many private universities make it their mission to serve their home state as much as Tufts does," Morgan told the Daily. "We were also impressed by the many existing public service efforts on campus."
According to Barbara Canyes, the executive director of the MACC, which is a Medford-based nonprofit group that aims to develop students' civic skills, the grant provides unprecedented opportunities for both the MACC and Tufts.
"Tufts has always been interested in doing something that will [promote] college access, and the MACC can provide a network that will help [the university] do that," Canyes said. "We have the skills, and Tufts certainly has the interest and the resources."
The program will be based on a successful model used by the University of Virginia and funded by the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, the press release stated.
"We're very excited and we're confident we can produce a model that can be replicated across the country," Canyes said.
Tufts acquired the grant through a joint effort by the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service and the MACC. While 52 colleges and universities applied for the grant, only 10 received it.
Director and Associate Dean of the Tisch College Nancy Wilson anticipates great support for the program from the Tufts community.
"This kind of thing is right up [Tufts'] alley. When we talk to a lot of Tufts students, many of them are very committed to giving everyone an equivalent opportunity to go to college," Wilson said.
Wilson also said that the Tisch College's "longstanding relationship with MACC" was a predictor of success.
The Tisch College and MACC have worked together to plan several projects, including a conference on global poverty last spring and an upcoming discussion on the social responsibilities of corporations.
