Commentary: Weird formation, with Minshew's help, heralds a
new season for WSU
Monday Morning QB: Dale Grummert, Spokane S-R 9/3/2018
It was a football formation that Pablo Picasso might have
dreamed up, especially during that period when his paintings rearranged human
anatomy to suit his fancy.
Essentially, the center position in the formation was manned
by a wide receiver — meaning, in other words, he wasn’t centered at all. The
Cougars could title this painting/formation, “Heart on His Sleeve.”
While the rest of the Washington State offense lined up in
more or less normal fashion — though bunched tightly near the left sideline —
slotback Kyle Sweet hovered over the football at the left hash mark, then hiked
it one-handed, laterally, toward quarterback Gardner Minshew. As planned,
running back James Williams stepped in front of the QB to snag the ball, then
scampered forward for a 5-yard gain.
“I think I’ve seen Knute Rockne run that play,” one of the
TV announcers mused.
“I’ve never seen that in my life,” his partner said.
With that bizarre third-quarter play Saturday in the Cowboy
State, the Cougars slyly announced the start of a new season and perhaps a new
mentality.
No, Mike Leach hasn’t scrapped his beloved Air Raid offense
for a football counterpart to the Model T. Although the Cougars actually ran
that geeky play twice in succession — Williams gained 4 yards the second time —
they quickly returned to the assortment of schemes that Leach and Hal Mumme
drew up on napkins in an Iowa luncheonette in 1989.
But Wazzu’s 41-19 win over Wyoming in its season opener at
Laramie, Wyo., nonetheless felt like a fresh start, a declaration of
independence from the past. Sure, the Cougars have reached three consecutive
bowl berths and have no impetus to reinvent themselves. But during the past
several months they’ve also bid farewell to several departing players and five
assistant coaches, they’ve endured the anguishing loss of a teammate, and
they’ve perhaps come to realize that change isn’t merely good, it’s inevitable.
The wideout-as-center formation was maybe the emblem of the
Cougars’ fresh start. But the personification of it was Gardner Minshew.
In terms of temperament, WSU’s new starting quarterback
could scarcely be more different from predecessor Luke Falk, the most prolific
passer in Pac-12 history, whose ability to whisper an inner calm to teammates
helped them pull off seven fourth-quarter comeback wins over three seasons.
Minshew, the graduate transfer from the Deep South,
undoubtedly values grace under pressure, as all quarterbacks must. But what he
communicates to teammates most demonstrably is verve, resolve, energy.
Basically, he wears his heart on his sleeve.
Leach’s two throwback plays actually formed the odd
centerpiece of the game’s pivotal drive, on the Cougars’ first possession of
the second half, trailing 19-13. The coach had been critical of Minshew and
mates in the first half, invoking a “You’re trying to be too perfect” complaint
that he frequently leveled at Falk offenses.
But Minshew signaled a new attitude from the start of that
key drive. After taking the first shotgun snap, he scanned the field and
flashed a jaunty little shoulder turn, a miniature pump-fake, that maybe helped
spring Dezmon Patmon open on a curl for 5-yard gain.
Then came a pass-interference penalty on Wyoming, an
impressive Williams run for 14 yards, then the two Knute Rockne plays. (Who
knows? Maybe Picasso inspired Rockne the way Jackson Pollock inspires Leach.)
But the true inspiration of the drive was a fourth-and-6 play
from the Wyoming 40, when Minshew backpedaled away from a blitzing Andrew
Wingard and tossed the ball to a patch of green over the middle. As if reading
the quarterback’s mind, slotback Jamire Calvin dashed in the same direction and
made a sliding catch for a first down. Four plays later, Minshew threw a
go-ahead touchdown pass, and the Cougs never trailed again.
Not a bad debut for a guy who was never announced as the
starting quarterback until he took the field. That’s Leach’s M.O., of course.
He makes no announcements he’s not obligated to make, and his players generally
plead ignorant as well, before and after the game.
The first thing reporters asked Minshew after his first WSU
victory was, “When did you know you were going to be starting this game today?”
He thought for a moment and smilingly said, “A couple of
weeks ago. Leach plays games with y’all. So he’s just having fun.”
Yes, this is clearly a new season.
::::::::::::::::
VINCE GRIPPI OF SPOKESMAN-REVIEW:
A couple things surprised me in Laramie and Gardner
Minshew’s performance wasn’t one of them. Ever since he announced he was
attending Washington State and Rick Lukens ran down his phone number for a
radio interview on a day I was working, nothing he does surprises me.
Minshew was impressive then, showing an intelligence, wit
and poise that presaged his success in the opener. It was obvious the young man
just got it. And his numbers at East Carolina showed he had the physical
abilities.
But the play of the offensive line against a good defensive
front, now that was a surprise, considering all the Cougars lost from last
season. And the ability of the defensive front to dominate the line of
scrimmage was only a little less unforeseeable.
Bottom line: a good season-opening win for WSU in a tough
place to have success.
:::::::::::::::
Cougar Football
The standout junior defensive end missed at least 15
practices during preseason camp with an undisclosed injury, but it didn’t keep
him from playing a significant role against Wyoming.
By Theo Lawson
Spokesman-Review
LARAMIE, Wyo. – Nnamdi Oguayo’s absence from the practice
field was a growing concern for Washington State fans through the month of
August. Evidently, that’s all it was.
The standout junior defensive end missed at least 15
practices during preseason camp with an undisclosed injury, but it didn’t keep
him from playing a significant role in Saturday’s season opener against
Wyoming.
Oguayo’s mere presence seemed to uplift the Cougars, who’ve
been confronted with adversity on the defensive line all preseason – first when
highly-touted nose tackle Pono Lolohea left the program midway through camp,
then when WSU learned junior college transfer Misiona Aiolupotea-Pei, who’d
assumed Lolohea’s backup NT role, wouldn’t be eligible for the opener because
of NCAA paperwork problems.
Oguayo showed up, indeed, and he did more than that,
recording three solo tackles while putting Wyoming quarterback Tyler Vander
Waal under constant duress in the Cougars’ 41-19 win.
“He’s such a good guy
for us, he helps us so much,” fellow defensive lineman Will Rodgers III said.
“More than you guys even know.”
Added nickel Hunter Dale: “It’s a big boost, it gives us
depth – something we don’t have on the defensive line this year. And having him
back, he’s a vet, he knows, he’s experienced. A lot of people that haven’t
played yet could watch Nnamdi and get the experience from him and then get
comfortable when he does something. It’s just nice having a vet like that back
on the field.”
Even without the depth they had going into camp, the Cougars
still rotated seven players through the defensive line. Behind the three
starters – nose tackle Taylor Comfort, defensive tackle Nick Begg and defensive
end Logan Tago – Oguayo, Rodgers III, Jesus Echevarria and Dallas Hobbs also
got playing time.
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
What question marks? Washington State’s defense clears up
any uncertainty in season opener
UPDATED: Sun., Sept. 2, 2018, 10:23 p.m.
By Theo Lawson of the S-R
PULLMAN – Two things were learned about Will Rodgers III on
Saturday in Washington State’s season-opening win against host Wyoming at War
Memorial Stadium in Laramie.
The sophomore defensive lineman, for one, is a quote machine
whose brutal honesty in media environments might be just as refreshing as his
tenacity on WSU’s defensive front.
Asked if he thought the Cougars made a statement win by
trouncing the Wyoming Cowboys on their home turf in a game bettors thought
would be decided by 2½ points, Rodgers III responded, “Yeah. Yeah. And we have
a lot more (statement wins) to make. Yes, to answer your question.”
He left reporters with a few more zingers by the time his three-minute
postgame interview was over. (Read on).
And the second thing to know about Rodgers III? He’s one of
maybe a dozen defensive players who would’ve been hardly identifiable to the
average WSU fan last year, but could become a cornerstone of defensive
coordinator Tracy Claeys’ group by the season’s end.
Due to graduation and one early defection to the NFL, the
Cougars are forfeiting plenty of experience at a number of spots on defense
this season – and some considerable talent, too – but Saturday’s game indicated
they may not feel the effects of those losses quite as much as most
anticipated.
Also, it looks like that former defensive coordinator Alex
Grinch left WSU with a few parting gifts.
Four players on defense made their first career starts on
Saturday. Two of those, free safety Skyler Thomas and Rush linebacker Dominick
Silvels, were at the top of the Cougars’ tackle leaderboard, with nine and six,
respectively. Another one, nose tackle Taylor Comfort, recorded three tackles
and was credited with a half-sack.
Your man on the street probably wouldn’t have been able to
provide much of a profile on any of those players prior to Saturday’s game, or
their backups, such as Rodgers, a defensive end who had two tackles and a sack,
Rush linebacker Willie Taylor III, who had one tackle, one sack and one forced
fumble, or defensive tackle Jesus Echeverria, who notched two tackles including
a tackle-for-loss.
It was suggested to Rodgers that there were “question marks”
at the Rush linebacker spot, where Silvels, who moved to the position midway
through camp, and Taylor, who’s coming off his redshirt season, have the
challenging task of replacing Frankie Luvu and Dylan Hanser.
If preseason camp solicited questions, the opener provided
answers.
“The question marks were only by you guys,” Rodgers said.
“We always had faith in those guys. I always knew Willie was going to be a guy,
I always knew Dom was going to be a guy.”
Added nickel Hunter Dale: “I have confidence from watching
them in practice, you never know how somebody’s going to play in the game until
they’re actually in the game. A lot of times when they had sacks I was in
coverage and I didn’t even know who had the sacks. But they’re guys that always
make plays and I wouldn’t expect less from them.”
To replace a wave of defensive starters is one thing. To do
it while simultaneously introducing a new defensive coordinator, a new outside
linebackers coach, a new safeties coach and a new cornerbacks coach is another
challenge completely.
Communication between the coordinator and his assistants,
between coordinator and players, and between assistants and players is probably
an underrated component of the game-day routine.
WSU’s newly assembled defensive staff was doing it for the
first time Saturday, but Dale didn’t seem to think there were any hiccups.
“It was really good that we were playing away, too. So how
he wanted us to play, we got to hear him from the sideline then we would talk
on the field so we kind of get the groove of how he wants us to play,” he said.
“And the best thing about Coach Claeys, (safeties) Coach (Kendrick) Shavers,
they always tell us that we’re the ones playing so if ya’ll want to change
something, ya’ll come and tell us and then we’ll talk as coaches and let ya’ll
change it. And that’s something that we did today, too, that we felt more
comfortable playing a certain play and they let us play to our comfortability.”
………………….
QB Luke Falk released by Titans, claimed by Dolphins
Quarterback Luke Falk was among the former Washington State
players who were waived Saturday by NFL teams. On Sunday, he was picked up by
the Miami Dolphins.
While Falk was cut by the Tennessee Titans, River Cracraft
was dropped by the Denver Broncos and defensive linemen Frankie Luvu And Xavier
Cooper of the New York Jets and Daniel Ekuale of the Cleveland Browns were also
waived.
…………….
NFL
Luke Falk headed to Miami as Dolphins add fourth quarterback
UPDATED: Sun., Sept. 2, 2018, 6:16 p.m.
By Omar Kelly South Florida Sun Sentinel
Luke Falk is now a Miami Dolphin.
The Dolphins claimed the former Washington State quarterback
off the waiver wire, adding a fourth quarterback to the team’s 53-man roster.
Falk was a 2018 sixth-round pick of the Tennessee Titans,
which happen to be Miami’s opponent for the Sept. 9 season-opener.
Falk led Washington State to a 28-15 record, completing 68.3
percent of his passes in a spread offense. He passed for 14,481 yards and threw
119 touchdowns during his collegiate career.
Falk completed 13 of 24 passes for 114 yards no
interceptions and was sacked four times during the Titans final preseason game.
The Titans didn’t keep Falk on his 53-man roster because
they have Marcus Mariota as the team’s starter and veteran Blaine Gabbert as
his backup.
The Dolphins have Ryan Tannehill as the team’s starter, and
kept Brock Osweiler and David Fales as his primary backup.
How long Miami keeps four quarterbacks on the 53-man roster
will probably depend on how Falk performs, and how quickly he learns the
offense.
………………..
Cougars fire away, Vandals fumble
At-home viewers of college away games discuss school spirit
and the coming season
By Scott Jackson, Moscow Pullman Daily News
Much of the Washington State University campus was quiet
early Saturday afternoon, with the exception of a large gathering of students
and community members in the school's Compton Union Building where they watched
their beloved Cougars open the 2018 football season on the road at the
University of Wyoming with a 41-19 win.
The crowd resembled a busy airport terminal, with viewers
sporting Cougar crimson while they clapped, cheered and groaned in unison as
the game unfolded on the various screens around the room.
Jason Halcomb, a 21-year-old WSU senior, was in attendance
with girlfriend, Jessica Peebles, who was visiting from the University of
Arizona.
Halcomb said Saturday's crowd was more sparse than usual
thanks to the Labor Day weekend, but Peebles said even the relatively modest
turnout was a startling contrast to what she's used to at Arizona.
"There's a lot more school spirit here than I'm used to
- at U of A, no one looks at away games," Peebles said.
With WSU scheduled to play against Arizona in November,
Peebles said the two have a bet riding on the game but they have yet to settle
on the stakes.
Halcomb admitted he doesn't follow football closely, but as
a senior at WSU, he has a certain allegiance to the team.
Visiting WSU alumnus Gary Swindler, viewing the game from
the Pullman bar My Office, agreed.
"WSU is a tribe," Swindler said.
Steve Riggs, a Pullman native who recently moved back to the
area, echoed this sentiment as well.
"Growing up here, it's in the DNA," Riggs said.
"My parents are both Cougars, my grandfather went here - I'm still getting
used to it, I mean I've been away for 17 years."
The University of Idaho also opened the season with an away
game, though viewership was noticeably more sparse. By the end of the night,
the Vandals suffered a staggering 79-13 defeat at the hands of Fresno State.
Bret Kindall, a bartender at Moscow watering hole the Corner
Club, blamed the Labor Day weekend for the scattered attendance, saying the establishment
is typically full during away games.
"It's usually really packed," Kindall said.
"We put everyone on staff all day, but I guess every year during Labor Day
there's not as many people."
UI student Jake Ramey said he and his friends do their best
to support UI football whenever possible, even though it's not the most
successful of sports programs. Ramey agreed that many would-be viewers had left
to take advantage of the extended weekend.
"We definitely love Vandals football, but a lot of
people did go home for the long weekend," Ramey said.
Ramey noted the bar was streaming the game via Facebook and
the footage was often choppy. Ramey predicted that, with the UI's recent
voluntary move from the Football Bowl Subdivision to the Football Championship
Subdivision, in-person attendance to away games will increase.
"I think it'll create a better atmosphere for fans to
want to come to games more often," Ramey said.
Both WSU and UI have home games this coming Saturday. UI
will face Western New Mexico, while WSU will play the San Jose State Spartans.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
EDUCATION
WSU anticipates revenue boost from partnership with
international student recruiter
Sunday Sept the 2nd of 2018
By Chad Sokol of Spokane S-R
When he received a so-so score on an English proficiency
exam, Mustafa Akgun thought he had missed his chance to leave Turkey for an
American university.
But recruiters from a private company called INTO University
Partnerships saw potential in Akgun after he graduated from a top school in
Ankara, and now, after two semesters of intensive English courses, the
28-year-old is pursuing a master’s degree in agricultural economics at
Washington State University.
“I couldn’t get acceptance directly from universities, and
INTO helped me to get that,” said Akgun, who was among the first cohort of
students to benefit from WSU’s partnership with the international student
recruiting company.
WSU administrators say that partnership will eventually
bring in thousands more students from other countries, making the university
more culturally diverse, boosting tuition revenue and improving the school’s
international reputation. They say the partnership will not only help WSU climb
out of a spending deficit, but also put the university on track to become one
of the nation’s top public research institutions – in part by supplying WSU
laboratories with talented young academics from around the world.
“In this day and age, we believe that any university that is
not looking at global issues, or working with the rest of the world, is really
going to be left behind because of such an interconnected world,” said Asif
Chaudhry, a former U.S. ambassador to Moldova who is now WSU’s vice president
for international programs. “The more diversity in terms of international
students and others, the better.”
In recent years, Chaudhry said, WSU has had around 2,000
international students representing 7 to 8 percent of enrollment. The
university’s goal is raise that proportion significantly; Chaudhry said
international students account for up to 19 percent of enrollment at many
top-ranked universities in the United States.
Chaudhry said that change is intended to grow the
university, not displace any students who grew up in-state. And he said it
serves WSU’s mission as a land-grant institution: By exposing all students to a
wealth of ideas, methods and experiences, the university can better prepare
them to work in an increasingly globalized world.
“We want them to be global citizens,” Chaudhry said. “The
only way to do that is, either we expose them to the world, take them all over
for study abroad programs, or somehow we bring the world to them.”
How it works
INTO has contracts with 11 universities in the United
States, 14 in the United Kingdom and one in China, according to the company’s
website. Those schools include Oregon State University and Colorado State
University.
Chaudhry said the company has around 250 employees and
offices in more than 30 countries, giving it unique reach and expertise. WSU,
he said, has four or five employees who travel the world to spread word about
the university, but they’re also responsible for processing applications back
in Pullman. Building a network like INTO’s would be vastly expensive, he said.
“You have to put in a lot of resources to go out and find
students, especially at a time when there is strong competition from all over
the world, good institutions all over,” Chaudhry said. INTO’s year-round
presence in other countries, he said, “gives you much better access to those
markets.”
At WSU, the INTO program primarily serves graduate students
but also a small number of undergraduates. Among other application
requirements, students are required to take one of two English proficiency
exams: the TOEFL, which is commonly used in the United States, or the IELTS,
which is more widely accepted in the United Kingdom and Australia.
Some of the students recruited by INTO meet or exceed WSU’s
admission requirements, meaning they can jump right into their graduate
programs as soon as they arrive in Pullman or at one of the university’s other
campuses. But other students, like Akgun, may fall just short of the
requirements because of a language barrier or differences in countries’ grading
systems.
Chaudhry said it can be unfair to automatically reject
students with less than, say, a 3.0 grade-point average, because that number
doesn’t represent the same level of performance in every country.
“Perhaps the student who gets the 2.9 in South Korea is
really a 3.8 student in our system,” he said.
Those students may be recruited to study at WSU, but they
are expected to prove themselves before enrolling in the graduate school. They
do so through a so-called “pathway” program that is administered jointly by WSU
and INTO.
The pathway program can last one or two semesters, depending
on a student’s performance. For some, it involves intensive English-learning
courses. Students in the pathway program can also take regular WSU classes and
begin earning credits toward their advanced degrees. But those credits
effectively won’t count if a student completes two semesters in the pathway
program and still does not meet graduate admission requirements.
In that sense, the pathway program is like a probationary
period for international students who might otherwise miss any chance of
attending WSU.
“Once that is done, then they matriculate and become degree-seeking
students in the regular student population at Washington State University,”
Chaudhry said.
Tuition for in-state students is currently $10,268 per year.
WSU’s international students, including those recruited by INTO, pay the
higher, out-of-state tuition rate, which is currently $24,504 per year. Those
figures don’t include housing, meal plans, books or mandatory fees.
The business model
President Kirk Schulz announced the INTO partnership in
December 2016, but details of the business model have not been widely reported.
It’s a complicated arrangement that has drawn scrutiny from some faculty
members and at least one state lawmaker.
“There are a number of really disturbing things about this
from a state legislator’s viewpoint,” said Rep. Gerry Pollet, a Seattle
Democrat who serves as vice chairman of the House Higher Education Committee.
“There are some really big issues here – none of which have ever been presented
to the Legislature.”
Among other things, Pollet, who also teaches at the
University of Washington, said he worries that WSU faculty have a diminished
role in the admissions process for INTO students. Unlike most students who are
selected by academic departments, INTO students take a special path through the
university’s international programs office.
“It appears to me they have really cut out the faculty
departmental role in admissions with a separate, fast-tracked admission
guarantee in this contract,” Pollet said. “There appears to be no meaningful
role left for departmental faculty.”
Pollet also questioned why WSU chose to establish “a
privatized English program” for international students. UW has something
similar, he said. “But it’s not a privatized entity. It’s UW faculty. It’s a UW
program.”
Through a public records request, The Spokesman-Review
obtained a copy of the contract as well as financial projections and target
enrollment numbers. WSU initially redacted various dollar figures in the
documents, citing a state law that protects “trade secrets,” but after an
appeal by the newspaper, the university provided the records with no
redactions.
INTO and WSU actually created a third entity, INTO WSU LLC,
the board of which includes leaders from both organizations. That company,
which Chaudhry referred to as the “joint venture,” receives students’ tuition
while they are in the pathway program, but it reimburses the university for any
educational expenses, including rented classrooms, office space, utilities and
student housing. INTO’s recruiters also get a commission for each student they
bring in.
INTO and WSU evenly split whatever funds are left in the
joint venture at the end of each fiscal year. Once students leave the pathway
program and get accepted into graduate school, their tuition money is paid
directly to WSU – but about 6 percent of that goes back to INTO. The contract
incentivizes INTO to recruit qualified students, Chaudhry said, “because if the
student does not progress, they don’t get that 6 percent.”
Because WSU does not immediately receive tuition from each
INTO student, it’s not expected to turn a significant profit for a few years.
But financial estimates show the university raking in about $207 million in new
tuition revenue, plus more than $8 million from the joint venture, during the
first 10 years of the contract. INTO is expected to make about $15 million
during the same period. By 2027, the number of international students at WSU
will have grown to 5,462, the projections show.
In an October interview with the Daily Evergreen, the
student newspaper, Schulz cited the INTO partnership as a main source of new
revenue when asked about potential solutions to the university’s deficit, which
totaled about $30 million at the time. During a back-to-school meeting with
reporters this month, Schulz said money is still a significant consideration,
but he also emphasized the role of the program in “preparing our students to
work in a global marketplace.”
Greg Crouch, a chemistry professor who is chairman-elect of
WSU’s faculty senate, said he had heard concerns from colleagues when the INTO
contract was being negotiated.
“There was a huge concern that this was some sort of
unmonitored pipeline into the university that was just a cash cow,” Crouch
said.
But before the contract was signed, he said, a committee of
faculty members visited Oregon State University and consulted other schools that
had worked with INTO, and they generally had high hopes for the program.
“It’s been a financially viable thing for those schools,”
Crouch said. “They get good students and they make money.”
Crouch said it’s too early to judge how the partnership has
worked out for WSU, though he said a fellow professor in engineering had raised
concerns about the qualifications of some INTO students.
But there’s no question the university has needed to improve
its recruiting strategy, Crouch said, because some professors have struggled to
find qualified research assistants.
“I think that the general consensus is we don’t know enough
yet,” he said. “I think that the faculty senate was pretty convinced that we’ll
improve it as we go, because this was so new to us all.”
::::::::::
WASHINGTON
Colleges and universities should be more visible in
Washington classrooms, new foundation president says
Sun., Sept. 2, 2018, 1:30 p.m.
By Katherine Long Seattle Times
The new leader of an 18-year-old foundation that helps
low-income students go to college says higher education should have a bigger
presence in Washington’s classrooms.
Earlier this summer, James Dorsey started as the new
president and CEO of the College Success Foundation (CSF). The public-private
partnership employs advisers to work in public middle and high schools with a
mission of creating a college-going mindset, providing scholarship dollars and
assisting students during the transition to higher education. Those advisers
are the “secret sauce” of CSF’s success, Dorsey said.
Dorsey is doing an extensive listening tour, and still
getting his arms around the job. But one difference between Washington and
California, where he previously worked, is that California higher ed
institutions really made their presence felt in schools. “I think we could do a
better job as a state in terms of early access and awareness,” he said.
Dorsey was most recently executive director of MESA and
president of MESA USA, a foundation that promotes math, engineering and
science. While there, Dorsey helped bring hands-on learning into the classroom
to get kids excited about math, science and technology. He hopes to do some of
that work with CSF as well.
Seattle has a highly skilled workforce, and “there’s no
reason why Washington children shouldn’t be the recipient of the majority of
those high-wage jobs,” he said.
A number of studies have shown that, despite Seattle’s tech
hub status, the state overall has a low college-going rate; one recently
updated study by the Washington Roundtable, a nonprofit policy center made up
of business groups, projects that only about 40 percent of the high-school
graduating class of 2015 will earn a postsecondary credential (a college degree
or other type of credential) by age 26. That number is an improvement, however,
from an earlier study by the Roundtable, which found that about 31 percent of
the class of 2006 had earned a credential by 26.
Dorsey says too few Washington high schools offer the
college-prep classes required to gain entry into a four-year school, including
math, science and foreign languages. (A recent national audit of high-school
graduation requirements also called attention to that issue in Washington,
although in many districts, those graduation requirements will become more
rigorous for the class of 2019.)
CSF started in 2000 with a 10-year, $100 million award from
the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the money primarily went to
scholarships, said Mary Theisen, the director of marketing and strategic
communications for CSF. (Note: The Gates Foundation funds Education Lab through
a grant.) Over time, the foundation has changed its model to provide an
integrated system of support to help low-income students navigate the
college-going system. It receives money from national and regional businesses
and foundations, and hundreds of individual donors. And it partners with the
state on a number of levels, including helping students sign up for a state
financial aid program called College Bound.
Last year, the foundation helped more than 8,000 students in
Washington state, and 1,400 in Washington, D.C., get to college.
The foundation doesn’t pick students based on GPA or
academic record – it helps all students in the underserved areas where it
operates. In this state, its districts include Seattle, Auburn, Highline, Kent,
Tacoma, Bremerton, Port Angeles, Yakima and Spokane.
When CSF started, about a third of Washington K-12 students
were low-income. Today, about half of all students in this state fall into that
category.
If the foundation is successful, Dorsey said, its help won’t
be needed anymore. “I’d like to see us put CSF out of business,” he said.
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