AXIOS NEWS’ INDIANAPOLIS BUREAU SPOTLIGHTS VCP FAIRBANKS FOUNDATION GRANT 
Report shares VCP goal that 50% of its high schoolers earn the Indiana College Core of 30 college credits

Axios news network sent Indianapolis bureau report Arika Herron to the Victory College Prep campus to report on the school network’s $1.5 million grant award from the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation through its College Matters initiative.

Herron’s reporting features insights from VCP 7-12 School Principal Chelsea Easter, which Easter shared during an extended interview and tour of the school’s dual-credit high school classrooms with Herron. 

In the Axios Indianapolis story outlines some of VCP’s grant priorities. According to the story, “Victory College Prep is using its grant to bolster support for college-bound students to make sure they’re prepared to succeed once they arrive on campus.

• Already, every student graduates having completed at least one college course. Now, the school will have more resources to support students struggling in those college-level courses.
• The school’s goal is to increase its share of students earning the Indiana college core from 25% to 50%, which equates to their first year of college courses, by the time they leave VCP.
• It will also start providing financial literacy classes for families in partnership with Southeast Community Services, a service provider in the school’s near southeast neighborhood.”

Herron’s reporting goes on to quote Easter, “‘We have a lot of kids who go to college, but they are not thriving,’ said Chelsea Easter, principal of VCP’s 7th through 12th grade school.”

The story continues to share Easter’s VCP vision for the College Matters grant impact, “‘I don’t ever need 100% of our kids to say I’m going to college’, Easter said. ‘I want them to say I can go to college. That’s always going to be a door that’s open for me, and I’m prepared to attend. I’m prepared to be really successful, and that’s what this grant is going to allow us to do.'”

You can read the full story at Axios Indianapolis.