A student walks past the student enrollment center at Chattanooga State Technical Community College in this Feb. 5, 2014, photo.Student applicationsNumber of high school seniors who applied as of Thursday for Tennessee Promise:Hamilton County: 1,282Bledsoe: 68Bradley: 498Marion: 199McMinn: 395Meigs: 118Rhea: 201Sequatchie: 59Mentor numbersNumber of people who had signed up to mentor students in Tennessee Promise. Mentor requirements are based on the number of students who apply in each county:Hamilton County: 277, 20 still neededBledsoe County: Six, eight still neededBradley: 86, 33 still neededMarion: 37, four still neededMcMinn: 52, 29 still neededMeigs: 18, six neededRhea: 35, eight still neededSequatchie: 18, five more than neededPromise guidelinesHigh school seniors need to take the following steps to get a free two-year degree through Tennessee Promise:Nov. 1: Log on to TNpromise.gov to apply to the Tennessee Promise program. A local partnering organization will contact the student to help you complete the requirements.Feb. 15: File the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) at www.fafsa.gov.March 15, 2015: Attend first mandatory meeting coordinated by partnering organization.May 31, 2015: Attend second mandatory meeting coordinated by partnering organization.Spring: Apply to a community or technical college.Aug. 1, 2015: Complete FAFSA verification, if required by the community or technical college.Aug. 1, 2015: Complete eight hours of community service.Source: TNpromise.gov
With a Nov. 1 deadline approaching, some 42,000 of Tennessee’s roughly 62,000 high school seniors – or about two-thirds – have applied for Tennessee Promise, a new scholarship program that guarantees to cover the costs of a two-year college degree.
Among them is Christian Woodfin, 17, a senior at Red Bank High School and starting varsity baseball pitcher, who plans to use the program to get a two-year degree in fire science and engineering so he can be a firefighter.
“I’m very excited and blessed,” said Woodfin, who’ll be the first member of his father’s side of the family to go beyond high school. “Without that, it would been really hard to … go to college.”
Gov. Bill Haslam has visited Red Bank and other high schools around the state to promote Tennessee Promise, which he hopes will help boost the number of Tennesseans with two- or four-year degrees to 55 percent, up from 33 percent, now.