During the month of January, 8th grade students at Edison, Franklin, Jefferson and Urbana Middle Schools are learning about what it takes to make it out in the world—and they’re learning about it from C-U business professionals. 14 individuals are making 39 presentations to tell students how the CUScholars program, a program of the Champaign Urbana Schools Foundation, will prepare them for life after high school.
Students play the Wage Game and learn how difficult it can be to live on a minimum-wage income. They learn they won’t be able to live in their own apartment, drive a nice car, have a smart phone and go out to the movies every weekend on a minimum wage income. It becomes clear pretty quickly that they need to graduate from high school well-prepared for the next stage of their lives—whether it be a two-year college, the military, apprenticeship, the work force or four-year college. They also learn that it is a competitive constantly changing world.
The Champaign Urbana Schools Foundation created the CUScholars Program in collaboration with both public school districts, the business community, Parkland College, and the University of Illinois to ensure our students are college/career ready when they graduate from high school. There are four basic components:
- Academic Requirements: CUScholars go beyond the minimum graduation requirements in Illinois and are required to maintain a grade average of C or better to graduate from the program.
- Attendance: CUScholars must maintain a 95% attendance rate.
- Volunteer Service: CUScholars are required to volunteer 80 hours over their high school career. Volunteering is a great way to develop valuable skills and to build a strong resume for college or career applications.
- Enrichment: At the Freshman Focus students learn about their strengths and interests, explore cool new technologies and meet other students. At the Sophomore Experience students participate in a life skills simulation to learn how to make decisions about their future. In their junior year, they participate in a Financial Literacy Mini-Course, learning more about budgeting, credit, saving, financial goal setting and spending.
The CUScholars Program is free to students and is supported by private business and families in the community. The visionary sponsors are Horizon Hobby, Busey Bank, Herff Jones, Robert and Sondra LIbman, Champaign Unit 4 School District and Urbana School District 116. Supporting Sponsors are County Market, the University of Illinois Extension and Parkland College. Over 700 students now participate. The foundation is on target to increase that number to over 1400 within the next two years. To learn more about CUSF and the CUScholars Program visit www.cuscholars.org or call 217-398-2873.
For more information contact Roxann Bossenbroek at 217-398-2873 or at roxbos@cuschoolsfoundation.org.