Harcum College Awards Scholarships To High School Students In Unique Way
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Harcum College in Bryn Mawr is running prize patrols throughout the area. The prizes....are scholarships.
The scene was right out of the Publishers Clearing House playbook. Clutching purple balloons, a team of Harcum administrators walked up to a row house along the 6300 block of Glenloch Street and presented Jasmaira Rosada with a poster-sized check symbolizing the $5,000 scholarship she'll apply to her $23,000 tuition bill next Fall.
"[I found out] two days ago," Rosada said. "I was excited."
She appeared wide-eyed and dazed as she posed for photos. Harcum's Rachel Bowen says she knows the look. The school has targeted about 50 area high school seniors with GPA's of at least 3.0.
"We had a couple last week that I could tell were caught off guard. They're excited. It's hard to process," Bowen said. "I don't think that most people are expecting to see a college show up with a big check to their house."
Just weeks after Neuman Goretti Senior Alyssa Heller applied to Harcum college, a pair of representatives showed up at her workplace, East Passyunk Community Rec Center, to present the startled honors student with a $5,000 scholarship.
"I gotta let this soak in for a minute, but that will help a ton," Heller said. "I'm happy. Everything I've done in high school is finally paying off."
Bowen says the door-to-door stops are designed to showcase Harcum's reputation as a school that provides a personal touch to students.
"We have a lot of students that apply, but we're not really sure if they get what Harcum is about, where you're not a number, you're gonna be a name," she said. "And what better way to show that then by actually coming to your house and showing that you're gonna get that one on one attention, that you're gonna be able to have these conversations with your adviser."
