Graduation2012
SATURDAY, JUNE 9, 2012
battlecreekenquirer.com
This fall, Levertis Brown Jr.
will be the first in his family to
go to college, a feat he hopes will
inspire his younger brother, sis-
ter and cousin to follow in his
footsteps.
“I want my little sister and
brother to look up to me and say,
‘Oh, I want to get that,’” said
Brown, an 18-year-old Battle
Creek Central High School
graduate. “It’s just a great hon-
or to show them how you’re sup-
posed to be successful.”
Brown said he’ll enroll at
Kellogg Community College to
study criminal justice. He
wants to be a police offer, a
member of a SWAT team.
But Brown said his mom is
the only one working in his fam-
ily, and it’s unlikely he would’ve
made it to college without a gift
given to the community seven
years ago with students just like
him in mind.
Brown is among some 500
students from Battle Creek
Public Schools and Lakeview
School District who graduated
this spring as the inaugural
class of Legacy Scholars, bene-
ficiaries of a W.K. Kellogg
Foundation gift that guarantees
them two free years of classes
at KCC.
Beth Luckock, Legacy Schol-
ars coordinator for the Battle
Creek College Access Network,
said more than 200 students
have signed up to use the schol-
arship this fall.
The remaining students are
going to four-year schools, have
joined the military, or could use
the scholarship later, she said.
Students have up to five years
after graduation to use Legacy
funding.
The scholarship was created
in 2005 when the Kellogg Foun-
dation gave$4milliontosendall
of that fall’ s BCPS and Lake-
view sixth-graders to KCC if
they graduated from those dis-
tricts. The foundation gave an-
other $4 million in 2007 and last
year the program was expand-
ed to give at least some money
to students who move intoBCPS
or Lakeview as late as their
sophomore year.
KCC President Dennis Bona
said his school usually enrolls
about 150 students from the two
Legacy districts, so the scholar-
ship has realized its founders’
dreams of sending more kids to
postsecondary schooling. And
Luckock said as much as half of
this year’s Legacy Scholars are
first-generation college-goers.
Bona said students are far
more likely to attend college if
someone in their family has
done so.
That’s largely because stu-
dents never exposed to college
can have a difficult time navi-
gating the application process,
if they aren’t too intimidated to
try. But one of the biggest parts
of Legacy Scholars has been
working with the students the
past six years on just how to tra-
verse that system.
In today’s tough economy,
the scholarship is important
even to those who could’ve
made it to college without it.
It helped Lakeview’s Katie
Smyth,18, who said she wants to
take two years at KCC before
transferring to Michigan State
University. She’s not sure of her
major, yet, but she’s leaning to-
ward food science and possibly
starting a career here in the Ce-
real City.
Smyth’s parents went to col-
lege; they’re both teachers at
BCPS. They have some money
saved up and Smyth said she’d
probably have gone to college
even without the scholarship.
“But it probably would’ve
been a lot harder to go for a
higher degree without the
scholarship,” she said. “I want
to get a master’ s degree, and
this way I won’t be as far in debt
after.”
Ditto for Sarah Marsh, an-
other 18-year-old Lakeview
grad. She said she wants to
study medicine, and the Legacy
scholarship “allows me to go
further … It’s really helpful.”
Indebted college grads drag
on local and national economies,
the Consumer Financial Protec-
tion Bureau said recently, and
that’s just part of the reason lo-
cal officials said Legacy Schol-
ars helps more than just the
scholarship recipients.
Bona said Legacy students
are not using other local schol-
arships, freeing up those funds
for other students to attend
school. And research shows
higher-educated people are
likely to make more money,
which means more to spend into
the economy.
And finally, officials and stu-
dents said the opportunity of
Legacy Scholars makes the city
amore attractive place to live,
which could bring college grad-
uates back home.
“I think it shows that Battle
Creek really cares about their
students and cares about their
education and what they’re go-
ing to do in the world,” Marsh
said.
Andrick Brown, an 18-year-
old Lakeview grad unrelated to
Central’s Levertis Brown, said
in a separate interview he
agreed. Though he was accept-
ed to Western Michigan Univer-
sity, Andrick Brown said he’ll
attend KCC to become a radiolo-
gy technician, opening the
doors for him to work a well-
paying job while he finishes up
medical school later on.
He said such opportunities
are “going to bring a big breath
of life into this city.”
Justin A. Hinkley can be
reached at 966-0698 or jhin-
kley@battlecreekenquirer.com.
Adream realized
Inaugural class
of Legacy
Scholars
graduates
Levertis Brown is a Legacy Scholar graduating from Battle Creek Central High School.
JOHN GRAP/THE ENQUIRER
LEGACY SCHOLARS,
AT A GLANCE
» Number of Class of 2012
students eligible: 500
» Number of Class of 2012
signed up to attend KCC: Just
over 200
» Cost to send those signed
up to college: $750,000 (tu-
ition, books and fees)
» Total in Legacy Scholars
fund: $10 million
» Total currently available
for scholarships: $2 million
Source: Beth Luckock, Legacy
Scholars coordinator with the Battle
Creek College Access Network.
Justin A. Hinkley
The Enquirer
Katie Smyth is a Legacy Scholar
who graduated from Lakeview
High School.
JOHN GRAP/THE ENQUIRER
INDEX OF SCHOOLS
Battle Creek Central High School ....................................... 2
Bearcat Alternative Center ................................................. 2
Harper Creek High School .................................................. 3
Lakeview High School ......................................................... 6
Pennfield High School ......................................................... 2
St. Philip Catholic Central High School .............................. 3
Albion High School .............................................................. 2
Athens High School ............................................................. 2
Bellevue High School ......................................................... 10
Bronson High School ......................................................... 10
Calhoun Christian School .................................................. 10
Calhoun Community High School ...................................... 8
Climax-Scotts High School ................................................ 10
Coldwater High School ...................................................... 11
Colon High School .............................................................. 11
Delton Kellogg High School ............................................... 11
Franklin High School ........................................................... 11
Gull Lake High School ......................................................... 9
Galesburg-Augusta High School ........................................ 8
Hastings High School ........................................................ 10
Homer High School ............................................................. 5
Maple Valley High School ................................................. 11
Marshall Academy ............................................................... 6
Marshall High School .......................................................... 5
Marshall Alternative High School ...................................... 5
Olivet High School ............................................................... 8
Quincy High School ........................................................... 10
Tekonsha High School ......................................................... 9
Union City High School ....................................................... 8
Kellogg Community College .............................................. 3
Robert B. Miller College ...................................................... 5
LJ-0100167889
CongratulationsCongratulations
to all 2012 Battle Creek Publicto all 2012 Battle Creek Public
Schools Graduates!Schools Graduates!
Good
Luck
Good
Luck
Legacy
Legacy
Scholarship
Scholarship
Recipients!
Recipients!
User: rwarner Time: 06-07-2012 13:08 Product: BCEBrd PubDate: 06-09-2012 Zone: BCE Edition: 1 Page: Features-Cov Color: CMYK
(12 pages)
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