Lavender Fund Seeks Your Help
Staff reports
The Lavender Fund, an A-B Tech program, provides scholarship opportunities to single parents with children at home who want to go back to school to gain the education and confidence needed to become financially independent. The program, which boasts a success rate nearly a third higher than the national average, is in jeopardy of ending unless matching funds are raised for a challenge grant by June 30, 2012.
The Lavender Fund was established at A-B Tech in 2008 through the generosity of an anonymous donor and the Community Foundation of Western North Carolina. A donor has stepped forward and pledged $125,000 to continue the program if the Foundation can raise $125,000 in matching funds.
“The fund was started by an anonymous donor who recognized
non-traditional students have needs other than tuition. The A-B Tech
Foundation set up a case management model with funds to help with
students’ emergency needs such as rent, utilities or something even as
basic as food,” said Sana Efird, Executive Director of College
Advancement at A-B Tech.
Efird said students are provided access
to an advisor who provides ongoing assistance, communication and
resources to help meet their needs.
“Lavender has served just over
100 single parents with this scholarship, and the latest fall-to-fall
retention/completion rate is 88 percent,” said Liz Atkinson, A-B Tech’s
Lavender Fund Advisor. The current national average rate for community
colleges is 56 percent.
The program has been so successful that
two other Western North Carolina community colleges – Blue Ridge and
Haywood – are replicating it.
Scholarship recipient Teri Pope
takes night classes at A-B Tech, studying Emergency Medical Science and
Human Services. She also works 40 hours a week at the VA Hospital and
volunteers for the Red Cross and Weaverville Fire Department.
“I
am a single mom, dedicated to improve my situation in any area where I
can be of service to the community and to also set an example for my
children that no matter what happens in life they can succeed if they
are diligent and work hard,” Pope said. “I have found when dedicated and
I put my mind to it and my heart in it, I can do anything, especially
when the intentions are for the good of my family and community.”
Another
component of the grant supports the A-B Tech Student Business Incubator
program for student entrepreneurs to start their own businesses. The
fund provides $500 a month for students in the incubator program to
offset business costs, supports the Young Entrepreneurial Scholars
summer day camp for middle and high school students and provides
entrepreneurial education opportunities for middle and high school
students throughout the year.
A-B Tech student Karen Donatelli is
a current member of the student incubator program. She has opened a
cake design business in downtown Asheville, employing six people. “If it
weren’t for A-B Tech, I wouldn’t have been able to do this,” she said.
“The College touches so many lives in this community.”
Anyone
interested in donating to the fund should contact Sana Efird at the A-B
Tech Foundation at (828) 254-1921, ext. 176 or [email protected].
