TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) — FSU will use their new $1.3 million Talent Search grant money to create a pre-college program specifically designed to help Title I students across the Big Bend.
They'll pair this funding with other grant money to expand their current outreach efforts from reaching 50 students to reaching 500 students.
The program will create opportunities for in-school support, after-school mentoring and tutoring, ACT and SAT prep, as well as college tours.
Florida State University Director of Pre-collegiate Programs says the program will help keep high school students motivated.
"The most important thing is to normalize the experience of going to college," said Inika Williams. "And so we find a lot of our students in our communities, they want to go starting at ninth grade, and we see those rates decline as years go on. And so we bring them on campus once a month to experience programming, but most excitingly they get to spend two weeks on campus as a college student."
The on campus experiences begin two weeks after primary school ends.
Funding benefits Leon County students at Godby High School as well as Griffin and Nims Middle schools.
They'll also serve High School students Franklin, Holmes, and Bay counties.