City-funded scholarships make community college free for Philly students: ‘Honestly, I don’t think I’d be in school’ without it

Trinity Pritchette knew her mother would like to help her pay for college, but it would be a tough proposition with six other children at home.

Thanks to a city-funded scholarship program, her mother didn’t have to. Pritchette is attending the Community College of Philadelphia for free.

“Whatever financial aid doesn’t pay for, they pay for the rest,” said Pritchette, 21, a Lincoln High graduate from Northeast Philadelphia.

She wasn’t even aware of the scholarship program, named after Philadelphia educator and civil rights activist Octavius Catto, until she got an email about it from CCP. Now Pritchette, in her second year there, is one of about 800 Catto scholars expected to be enrolled at the community college this fall.

“Just the fact that she has been able to excel in school and get this opportunity has been such a relief for me, to not have to stress so much about how we are going to do this,” said Trinity’s mother, Lisa Pritchette, 55, who works for a Bala Cynwyd catering company.

» READ MORE: Mayor Jim Kenney’s budget would make community college free for thousands of Philadelphians

Mayor Jim Kenney announced the program in March 2020 as a way to help city residents from low- and moderate-income families afford college. The city this year will spend $10.8 million on the program, initially open to students who attend full time and who graduated from a Philadelphia high school — public, private, cyber, or home school. In April, the program was expanded to include city residents who graduated from a high school outside the city, transferred from another institution or attended CCP in the past but haven’t been enrolled for 12 months.

In addition to paying tuition costs not covered by other aid, Catto scholars also receive money toward food, books, and transportation. The scholarship covers expenses for up to three years, and it also is open to undocumented students, covering virtually all of their expenses, said April Voltz, an associate vice president who leads the scholarship program.

» READ MORE: CCP will pay off outstanding school bills for as many as 3,500 students

The average annual aid per scholar is about $11,000, the college said.

The program got off to a slower start than intended, given the pandemic, and some students initially thought an offer of free college was a scam, Voltz said. The first group of 133 scholars entered in spring 2021. Since then, 539 scholars have been enrolled, with about 300 new ones starting this fall, Voltz said. It’s a significant amount, considering the college’s overall full-time enrollment last spring was 2,873.

“We just want to get the word out more,” she said. “We want more students.”

The scholarship played a key role in other students’ college decisions, too.

“Honestly, I don’t think I would have been in school [without it], or I would be in debt,” said Najiyah Sanders, 20, a graduate of Girard College, a college prep boarding school, who lives in Germantown with her mother.

The liberal arts major with an interest in entrepreneurship and public health heard about the program through a school counselor. In addition to the financial support, the program pairs students with success coaches, and Sanders, a youth minister, said her mentor has been particularly helpful in her quest to start a nonprofit.

“She has helped me both in school and outside of school with some life things, period,” she said. “She always plugs me in, helps me get organized.”

Voltz said 86% of scholars who started last fall remained enrolled in the spring, higher than the college’s overall retention rate of 78%. Scholars need to maintain a 2.0 to stay in the program.

Jonathan Collins, 21, of West Philadelphia, was already familiar with CCP. He had dropped out of Overbrook High School a few years earlier, but returned to CCP to get his diploma through the Gateway to College program. Then the college told him about the Catto scholarship, which would allow him to pursue his associate’s degree.

“I never thought I’d be able to qualify for a scholarship,” he said.

Now, he’s two classes away from his associate’s in criminal justice. He then plans to transfer to Kutztown University for his bachelor’s. He’s already toured the school and met the president.

“I’m trying to do anything that has to do with politics and criminology,” said Collins, who is interning for City Council President Darrell Clarke. “If I step up and use my brain and my voice, I can probably change something for the youth in Philadelphia. That’s what I want to do.”

Without the scholarship, he said he likely wouldn’t be there.

Collins was one of dozens of students who turned out for an outdoor campus reunion of new and returning scholars earlier this month.

Pritchette was there, too, and was recognized as one of 88 scholars who achieved at least a 3.2 GPA this past spring. She got her picture taken with Mayor Kenney, who spoke at the event.

By getting her college degree, she said she hopes to make an example for her younger siblings and three cousins whom her mother adopted. She plans to transfer to Bloomsburg University and get her bachelor’s in American Sign Language interpreting.

“There’s a lot of discrimination toward deaf and hard-of-hearing people, especially people of color,” she said. “I want to somehow ... change some things. I want to help people.”