MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The Tennessee Promise is two years of a college education for free. Eight-thousand students in Shelby County are taking advantage of this opportunity, and many of them will be the first in their family to go to college.
But first, they have to get all the financial forms in on time, or they don’t qualify. The deadline is February 15th. Local groups are stepping in to help these kids stay on track for college.
Twelfth-grader Kristen Tate has big plans for her future.
“I want to study physical therapy,” she said.
Tate’s one of the 8,000 Shelby County seniors applying for the Tennessee Promise Scholarship.
The next step is filling out the FAFSA information. It’s not a simple form, and many parents don’t have experience with it.
Superintendent Dorsey Hopson says kids need extra support to see this opportunity through, and guidance counselors can only do so much.
“If you don’t have that support that a guidance counselor can’t offer after hours, it becomes difficult, and what we see is more and more kids give up,” he said.
That’s where Leadership Memphis comes in. They’re partnering with colleges, community centers, and churches to help students fill out their FAFSA application before the February 15th deadline. Leadership Memphis wants the kids to see the whole community is behind them and believes in their dreams.
Bernice Butler said, “They are going to want to turn around and re-invest in the community that helped them.”
Butler has set a goal to see at least 83 percent of those 8,000 kids get this form completed and get those kids in community and technical colleges, so Memphis will see a brighter economic future with a more educated workforce.
Click here for a complete list of FAFSA Memphis events in your area.
