Font ResizeThe College Opportunity Resources for Education scholarships, also known as CORE Philly, have been funded by grants from the city and its school district, but the public money runs out this year. Fattah announced Friday that the privately funded CORE Philly Charitable Trust, which has $5 million, will provide the aid in the future.
Fattah is soliciting contributions from businesses and private foundations to boost its coffers and has sponsored a bill in Congress to provide a tax credit for community trust funds like CORE Philly.
The CORE Philly program, started by Fattah and then-Mayor John F. Street, first gave scholarships in 2004 to city residents who graduated from public, charter, private and parochial high schools. Recipients are awarded up to $3,000 to help them attend one of 21 participating colleges in Pennsylvania.
At a rally Friday for the fifth class of graduates to receive CORE Philly scholarships, Fattah said people bachelor's degrees earn $1.9 million more over their lives than those with high school diplomas alone.
"It's like hitting the lottery, except you don't have to be lucky. All you have to do is go to school," Fattah said.
Fattah, a Democrat who represents parts of Philadelphia and
Another speaker at Friday's rally was Melissa Ingster, who was one of the first year's scholarship recipients and just graduated from Penn State University with a 3.9 grade-point average. Ingster, who plans to go to law school, told her successors that they can make it too.
"You can all do it," Ingster said. "You've just got to work hard. You can work full time while you're in school and still get good grades as long as you put school first."
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On the Net: http://www.corephilly.org/
