On Tuesday June 21, the Wicomico County Council passed an unprecedented plan to provide eligible Wicomico County students free tuition to Wor-Wic Community College. Initiated by County Executive Bob Culver and Wor-Wic President Ray Hoy, the program they designed is based on the premise of economic development instead of merit-based scholarships.
“Bob Culver presented this project as an economic development scholarship and that’s the real intent of the project,” said Hoy. “It’s to help local citizens get a college degree and one of the reasons we want that to happen is so we can, by increasing the percentage of the population with a college degree, we help our workforce, we help our employers, we give them a more educated workforce.”
Hoy spoke at length about the “brain-drain” in the county — students enrolling to Salisbury University and leaving the community after they get their degree. In contrast, Hoy said that 90 percent of students who go to Wor-Wic stay in the community. A program that offers free education and all but insures graduates stay in the county to join the workforce would drastically improve Wicomico County’s economy. By improving local employment rates, the program would also do wonders for individual students.
"In studies that have been conducted in communities that have programs like this, kids are more likely to graduate from high school, more likely to do better on standardized testing and they’re be more prepared to go to college,” Hoy said. “By getting a college degree, they’re more likely to earn lots more money through their lifetime.”
This plan would increase the number of college educated Wicomico County citizens from 35 percent to an estimated 55 percent in 2025, according to Hoy.
At the start of June it looked like the plan wouldn’t see the light of day, as certain aspects like the eligible income cap gave some council members pause. It was finally agreed upon that graduating high school seniors in Wicomico County, whose family earns less than $75,000 a year, would be eligible for the economic development free-tuition program.
The only catch is those students would need to apply and enroll for the fall following their high school graduation — it’s a one time only opportunity. Additionally, they will need to maintain a 2.0 GPA while enrolled and complete 24 credit hours each academic year.
Current Wor-Wic students like Morgan Creed recognize how game changing this could be for students who didn’t see college as a financial possibility before.
“This is a great opportunity for students here and they should really take advantage of it,” Creed said. “I wish there was something like this when I graduated high school.”
Her classmate, Camarryn Beale, agrees. She also thinks community colleges can be underestimated.
"There area a lot of misconceptions," said Beale. "People don't give Wor-Wic enough credit, they think community college will be a breeze."
Beale is studying criminal justice, an area of focus not typically associated with getting your associates degree. Beale feels it is a struggle to get prospective students to understand that community colleges provide a wide array of majors and trade programs.
“A lot of people don’t even know we have a forensic science track, which is really sad when you think about it because it’s a great program,” Beale said.
Schools like Wor-Wic, Beale said, are just as rigorous — and just as rewarding — as traditional 4-year colleges or universities.
“You have to put in just as much effort, just as much reading and studying,” said Beale. “You can have just as many opportunities as a four year.”
This issue isn’t always a lack of student awareness, though. Beale thinks that Wor-Wic needs to up its game when it comes to advertising those opportunities. She feels the school needs to visit the schools more frequently, offer more campus tours and make it known to all students what opportunities await them.
One of the main benefits to attending a Maryland community college is guaranteed admission to a Maryland university. When assessing her options upon graduating high school, Beale had no clue that was a possibility — instead, she found out in her third year at Wor-Wic.
“No, I didn’t know until this year when I was trying to figure out what I would do next and I was talking with my counselor,” Beale said. “It probably would have helped before, but I’m glad I know now.”
That pathway to a Maryland public university is what sends a lot of students to the community college, students like Morgan Creed to the community college. She realized how easy it would be to transfer her classes to Salisbury University when it came time to get her bachelor’s degree.
“I realized I could take so many classes at Wor-Wic that could transfer to Salisbury University, so I took advantage of that,” Creed said.
Both Creed and Beale feel that an automatic acceptance to a Maryland public university is a key piece of information that should be shared with prospective students, shouted from the rooftops even, especially with the school rolling out this economic development scholarship.
For this years applicants, Hoy has a message.
“It’s definitely crunch time,” Hoy said.
Wor-Wic is currently reaching out to all 2016 Wicomico County graduates, letting them know this opportunity is available for this coming academic year.
“Everyone has to apply to the college and for the scholarship and complete a federal financial aid scholarship application in order to be eligible and they have to do it by July 29th,” Hoy said.
Even though it's crunch time, Hoy is looking forward to greeting the 2016 freshman class...and the next class and the next class. In addition to committing $252,000 for the pilot year, the county council has allocated $540,000 and $665,000 for the second and third year, respectively. Hoy said that Worcester County’s county council is looking at a similar plan. Hoy would like to see something similar inplace for Somerset County residents.