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72 Downes Avenue
Pawtucket, RI 02861
April 18th, 2011

Dr. Todd D. Flaherty

President & CEO, The College Crusade of Rhode Island
134 Thurbers Ave., Suite #111
Providence, RI 02905

Dear Dr. Flaherty,

My name is Brittany Pailthorpe, and I am currently a junior of the Writing & Rhetoric B.A.
program at the University of Rhode Island. Being a product of an inner city school
district and having graduated from William E. Tolman High School in Pawtucket, I am
well aware of the positive impact your program has on students who work very hard to
have a successful academic career. Your organization, in affiliation with The Rhode
Island Board of Governors for Higher Education, has helped thousands of students with
financing their college education. Yet without doubt, as The Crusade is well aware, that
even in lieu of all your great accomplishments, that there is much more that is needed to
be done²specifically for students at URI. My goal is to work with you to establish a
specific scholarship designed for Inner-city graduates attending URI. The College
Crusade of R.I., and URI, in addition to the College Crusade Scholarship Collaborative,
would help make students who did not have the opportunity to excel with your program,
finance their increasingly expensive education.

The cost of URI has grown rapidly, most notably, tuition and housing, the largest
expenses for students, have risen by nearly $1,000 each academic year. When I
enrolled in the Fall 2008 semester my cost for 2008-2009 was $8,678 for tuition and
$9,342 for on-campus housing. Still, in addition to many other expenses, the cost of
which has also risen, estimated tuition for 2011-2012 undergraduate year is over
$11,300.

Paying those bills in their entirety would be almost impossible for over 70% of the
student population, which is why financial aid is awarded to 75% of students who apply.
Those awards however, are mostly in the form of loans, and it is growing increasingly
difficult for students to receive aid in the form of grants and scholarships. Yet with the
high amount of need-based aid, only 51% of those enrolled are in-state students. Those
out-of-state students, not including regional, are eligible to receive R.I. State grants as
well. The majority of those students come from wealthy families, so why is R.I. granting
money to students who are not from this state?

Only 25% of out-of-state students receive R.I. based grants, yet the students who live
in-state barely receive their needed amount of non-loan based aid. As a student, I never
would discourage the awarding of State money to fellow students who require it, but the
appropriations to those families who do not pay R.I. taxes are counterproductive. In
2009, according to the State Higher Education Executive Officers (SHEEO) financial
report, R.I. exceeded the net tuition revenue average, a figure that the State garners
over 60% of to support Higher Education. R.I. made over $8,400 per student, but only
provided $200, on average, to grant/scholarship aid.

Yet every Rhode Islander knows that with the current state budget crisis, other
monetary needs must be met first. Just like your program, the University of Rhode
Island provides many affiliated and non-affiliated Scholarship and Grant programs. The
Talent Development Program (TD) is one triumph for aiding inner-city and minority
students. Established in 1968, after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., TD has
helped countless students and currently has over 1200 enrolled.

The College Crusade Scholarship Collaborative, also a triumph for helping lower-
income families finance their children¶s postsecondary educations, but is limited only to
Crusaders. Students, like me, who missed the opportunity to become a Crusader would
qualify for such a scholarship based on their academic merit, community involvement,
extracurricular activities and application essay. The money would be sponsored by the
College Crusade, URI, and private donations, but would not take away from the
Scholarships of the deserving Crusaders around the State.

It may be a very small percentage of the money available for distribution, but a sum as
low as $200, can be the difference between affording textbooks or not. I believe this
scholarship should not exclude a large number of students, for all in lower-income inner-
city communities should have the chance to have their hard work and dedication
rewarded.

Although this Scholarship would be granted to worthy inner-city students, The College
Crusade and URI would have the ability to work with another dedicated student of
Rhode Island that normally would not be showcased. The opportunity to support
valuable young adults who, without the scholarship, may not have been able to pay for
necessities like textbooks to tuition, is irreplaceable to me. To think that with your help
we can facilitate another student into inspiring others, supporting themselves, their
families and communities, and reinforcing self-belief, is the definition of ³thinking big´.

Thank you,

Brittany Pailthorpe
(401)447-2949
bpailthorpe@my.uri.edu