Education as equalizer.TED LONG, PRESIDENT OF ELIZABETHTOWN COLLEGE Elizabethtown College is a small comprehensive college located in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania in Lancaster County. The school was founded in 1899 by members of the Church of the Brethren. It is commonly referred to as "E-town. , A SCHOOL OF 1,600 students in central Pennsylvania, has seen many students go from economic struggle to success thanks to higher education higher education Study beyond the level of secondary education. Institutions of higher education include not only colleges and universities but also professional schools in such fields as law, theology, medicine, business, music, and art. . "It is a way for them to essentially move up the ladder compared to their parents," he says of lower-income students. "We have an alumnus ALUMNUS, civil law. A child which one has nursed; a foster child. Dig. 40, 2, 14. in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of who is already vice president for an investment company, managing the energy portfolio, and he's supervising folks from Stanford and Harvard. He came from an ordinary background. There are stories like that all the time." Such anecdotal evidence anecdotal evidence, n information obtained from personal accounts, examples, and observations. Usually not considered scientifically valid but may indicate areas for further investigation and research. of the power of a degree is now backed by data from the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Pennsylvania (AICUP), which surveyed 16,000 graduates of the Class of 1999 five years after their graduation from 46 Pennsylvania private colleges and universities. The survey returned findings on several areas, but clearly showed that low-income students (those who received Pell Grants The Pell Grant program is a type of post-secondary, educational federal grant program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education. It is named after U.S. Senator Claiborne Pell and originally known as the the Basic Educational Opportunity Grant program. ) enjoyed similar rates of success five years out of college as those who came from wealthier backgrounds. "This is what we all hope that education will do," says Don Francis Don Francis is an American epidemiologist who worked on the Ebola outbreak in Africa in the late 1970s, and helped discover HIV and AIDS. He retired from the U.S. Public Health Service in 1992, after 21 years of service. , president of AICUP. "What the data is showing is that education is leveling the playing field for people from different socio-economic categories." With interest rates on student loans rising, individuals from private colleges are concerned about students from low-income backgrounds. Elizabethtown, for one, is investing $20 million in financial aid for the 2006-07 academic year. "Students take on a lot of debt, frequently they work, and our job I think is to make it as reasonable as possible," says Long. Now there's hard evidence to prove that fight is worthwhile. A full copy of the AICUP report is available at www.aicup.org. Characteristics of Recent Graduates by Economic Status Five years out of college, student ... High income Low income were employed full time: 82% 83% were earning between $40,000 and $80,000 72% 69% had completed additional degrees: 50% 50% had bought homes: 58% 61% had registered to vote: 95% 94% Note: Table made from bar graph. |
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