THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, February 2, 1996 TAG: 9602020397
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON GLASS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines
Even though she was an honor student and had big dreams, Stephanie Stockdale had no idea what she'd be doing after high school. Nobody in her family had ever attended college, many of her girlfriends had become teenage moms and she didn't even begin to know where she'd find money to continue her schooling.
``I didn't really see myself living a prosperous life,'' said Stockdale, a 1993 Maury High graduate and resident of Lamberts Point.
Then she discovered the Tidewater Scholarship Foundation. The group, also known as ACCESS, helped her wade through the maze of college admission and financial aid paperwork.
Now, she is a junior at Old Dominion University majoring in criminal justice, perhaps aiming for international law.
Since 1989, ACCESS has linked more than 7,600 students in Norfolk and Portsmouth to $27 million in financial aid, including $932,000 in ACCESS ``last-dollar'' awards to needy students. The group would like to expand into other school systems in South Hampton Roads.
And, elated ACCESS officials said this week, they'll be helping students achieve their dreams of college and a better life for a long time to come.
ACCESS officials are aglow after receiving a $1 million endowment gift that will be used for last-dollar grants. Those awards help students fill gaps in cash needs after other resources have been tapped. Last year, 209 students received $147,524 in last-dollar awards.
The donor, who wanted anonymity, also pledged to give the foundation another $1 million if ACCESS can raise $1 million from the community during the next five years. Already, $100,000 has been pledged toward the second million.
``Given our resources, it's just a wonderful gift,'' Thomas G. Johnson Jr., a Norfolk attorney and foundation president, said this week. ``It gives us stability, it gives us credibility, and this is something the school systems can count on being there for students.''
A clear need exists, officials say. About 65 percent of students in both school systems qualify for free or low-cost lunches. And with college expenses on the rise, even many middle-class families have difficulty raising college funds, said Gerald Cooper, executive director of the foundation.
But this is no free ride, Cooper said: To qualify for last-dollar grants, students must sign a pledge to maintain a C-plus grade average, remain drug free and attend at least 90 percent of their classes.
``The C students are the ones who make things tick in so many communities,'' Cooper said. ``We don't want any C students falling through the cracks.''
Stockdale, an intern in the commonwealth's attorney's victim witness program in Norfolk, said she had the grades to get into college but was clueless about how to apply. An ACCESS adviser, one of whom works in every high school in the two cities, helped her.
``It's like a mile of paperwork, and they helped me get through that,'' she said. ``A lot of students want to go to college, but they don't know how to get there.''
Stockdale said ACCESS helped her find scholarships and grants to pay about $5,000 in annual college expenses.
Last year, corporations, foundations and individuals donated $498,000 to ACCESS. The organization was founded in 1988 by Norfolk businessman Josh Darden and Frank Batten, chairman of Landmark Communications, which publishes The Virginian-Pilot. ILLUSTRATION: FOR DETAILS
For more information, call 441-2867. High schools in Norfolk and
Portsmouth have ACCESS advisers for students to contact.
by CNB