Welcome to the close of 2024, a hard year for so many. I’m so glad you’re here!
Before I share the story I came here to tell, I’ll begin by retiring the word “resilience”. There is no chemical coating or strength of character that makes the hard stuff slide off. Instead, and especially right now, “persistence” is the path forward. And Scholarship Foundation students know a thing or two about that.
The list of things that could have derailed our students in 2024 is formidable: widespread dismantling of programs and services designed to support diversity, equity and inclusion on campuses and in workplaces, the resumption of collection on federal student loans, the highly delayed and terribly dysfunctional FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid), continued fear fomented in threats to immigrants, and the financial distress and closure of a record number of colleges nationally. Look up from that list and you will see our students succeeding anyway.
Teresa Steinkamp being interviewed by CNBC in May 2024.
Fifteen times (see here: https://sfstl.org/about-us/in-the-media/) since the year began, the Foundation has appeared in the regional or national media on the matters of FAFSA and on college financial solvency. Twice in 2024, The Scholarship Foundation published updated watch lists of schools on the financial brink. In case you missed it, the most recent watch list can be found on our website here: https://sfstl.org/unprecedented-college-closures-students-advised-to-investigate-school-finances/.
After his college announced its closure, Chris Rose transferred in fall 2024 from Fontbonne University to University of Missouri-St. Louis and is on track to graduate in December 2025.
Close to home, just a few blocks from our office, Fontbonne University announced it would close and scaled back programs and services toward that eventual end. The Foundation wasted no time responding directly and individually to students enrolled there.
What happened since is a story of persistence typical of the Foundation and its students.
- March 2024 – Fontbonne University announced that it would close in summer, 2025.
- The Scholarship Foundation funded 12 students enrolled there at the time.
- May 2024 –
- Two Scholarship Foundation students graduated from the university.
- August 2024 –
- Five Scholarship Foundation students transferred to other colleges in the region.
- Five Scholarship Foundation students remained enrolled at Fontbonne (three graduating this month and two in May 2025, before the school closes).
So far, Scholarship Foundation staff have recorded a total of 57 interactions (meetings, correspondence, school visits) with the 12 students whose futures seemed so uncertain just eight months ago. So much got done quickly to shore things up with and for these students. The Foundation provided financial support to accelerate the pace to graduation, worked to resolve FAFSA issues quickly, helped prepare transfer plans (including an especially challenging situation involving ROTC) and issued microgrants to help with one-time expenses associated with school closure. As always, it was not just what the Foundation did, but how.
We listened, advocated, and facilitated connection to resources. We showed up, and our presence at the transfer/teach-out fair was notably appreciated by students and families. We helped students understand the financial health at schools they were considering for transfer, as several schools in transfer and/or teach-out agreements with Fontbonne were also included on the Foundation’s financial solvency watch list. We have continued to be in touch with students as they either acclimate to new schools or complete their education at a school that is closing soon, offering support for whatever they may need to meet their goals.
– Teresa Steinkamp, Director of Advising
National research reports that more than half of the students attending closing colleges do not remain enrolled, yet ALL TWELVE OF THE SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION STUDENTS ATTENDING FONTBONNE HAVE GRADUATED, WILL SOON GRADUATE, OR HAVE TRANSFERRED AND ARE ON TRACK TO GRADUATE ELSEWHERE.
That, friends of the Foundation, is the epitome of persistence, both on the part of those facing the realities of school closure and on the part of the Foundation staff and donors who simply refused to let that be the end of the story for a set of perpetually persistent students. My new year’s resolution, and I commend it to you too, is that we surely persist toward educational opportunity and racial and economic equity in the new year, no matter what it brings.
– Faith Sandler
