By Haleigh Miller, ’12, News Editor
A new Founders’ Scholarship Award–a larger and farther-reaching merit scholarship program than the school has offered in the past–has already attracted the attention of applicants, according to Director of Admissions Aaron Kellenberger. “Right now, about 25 students have applied…we’ll award about 20 in the end,” Mr. Kellenberger said. So far, seven Founders’ Scholarships have been awarded, six of which have been accepted by their recipients.
Unlike most other scholarships CCDS has offered, the Founder’s Scholarships are strictly merit-based, as opposed to need-based. While CCDS has offered merit-based awards in the past, they were always on a much smaller scale. These previous awards were valued at $1,000 to $5,000, whereas the Founders’ Scholarship provides recipients anywhere from $2,500 to $15,000. In addition to being of greater value, the Scholarships are renewable, unlike the previous merit scholarships, which were only in effect for the first year of a student’s enrollment. As long as the student keeps up the academic challenge, these new awards will be eligible for renewal.
The Founder’s Scholarship is one of the most significant in a series of new enrollment initiatives unveiled at the Enrollment and Engagement evening Jan. 20, which whole CCDS communitywas encouraged to attend.
The Founders’ Scholarships “Definitely attract high-potential, highly motivated students,” Mr. Kellenberger said. In fact, on average, the students who are eligible and have been offered this award “are A students and are in the upper 85th percentile, academically.” Those students are of a higher academic caliber than most of those accepted by the school.
In order to be eligible for the Founders’ Scholarships, as stated in literature on the awards, “the candidate must be recommended by a current CCDS family, faculty/staff member, alumni, or current school teacher, advisor, or administrator. The candidate must also be an applicant for admission to CCDS for grades 5-12, complete with all recommendations, transcripts, and test scores.” Essentially, in order to be considered for the new scholarships, an interested student must first be able to get into CCDS on their own, and then be recommended by one of the above parties.
Even though the Founders’ Scholarships are a new breed of award at CCDS, it is common knowledge that the school has been and continues to be willing to award need-based scholarships to students. With the addition of the Founders’ Scholarships, policies on the number of students eligible for scholarships have been revised. As Mr. Kellenberger explained it, if students qualify for both, they “can only be awarded one or the other, need-based or merit-based, but they are awarded whichever is greater.”
Lasdt week’s Enrollment and Engagement evening was the second of a series. The first took place on Nov. 4. Opening with an introduction to a speech on “The five strengths of Cincinnati Country Day School” by Mr. Merle Black, the meeting last week went on to summarize what has happened with enrollment and new initiatives since the first meeting, explain how new enrollment goals were going to be reached, and touch on how parents can help boost enrollment numbers. Other than Mr. Black, Head of School Dr. Robert Macrae, Mr. Kellenberger, Mrs. Lynn McInturf, and Mr. Mark Beyreis all contributed to various parts of the evening.
Dr. Macrae summed up what the school has been doing over the past months, since the previous Enrollment and Engagement Meeting on Nov. 4. His summary included that CCDS has become more liberal with handing out brochures for the school; improved signage on campus; added more “outreach and a personal touch” to private campus visits, ensuring that all prospective students meet with Dr. Macrae; promoted the school’s superior college acceptance record; begun more active tracking of alumni who went on to be involved in collegiate athletics; reached out to alumni in the area; and, in addition to even more initiatives, launched a new scholarship program.
As the evening progressed, Mr. Kellenberger and Mr. Beyreis took the stage to discuss how the school is being represented digitally and how parents can help generate an interest in the school. Mr. Kellenberger demonstrated the use of the rapidly expanding of “digitorials” available for view on the school website. The digitorials are the videos of students and faculty that cycle on the home page, and are also accessible though the “About CCDS” tab, under “Video Library.” After being viewed, the digitorials can be sent to friends, with the option of a pre-written, introductory email. There are currently 30 videos of students and faculty up on the website. Following Mr. Kellenberger, Mr. Beyreis, husband of Director of College Counseling Sarah Beyreis, explained how parents could aid enrollment by simply telling their friends about the school, the new Founders’ Scholarships, and the range of areas where CCDS is really extraordinary. His two examples were the H.O.P.E. project and a new Ultimate Frisbee team. As Mr. Beyreis described it, “originality is everywhere.”
The combination of the Founders’ Scholarships and other new initiatives are having the desired effect. Since the last Enrollment and Engagement Meeting, 480 inquiries have been made into the school, which have yielded 161 applications. The school plans to continue working to boost enrollment and reach the optimum number of students over the next three years.
Photo courtesy of CCDS.