Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson will be this year’s keynote speaker for Academic Signing Day for recipients of the El Dorado Promise scholarship program, which will be held at 2:30 p.m. on April 14, in the El Dorado High School Wildcat Arena.
The ninth annual signing day will celebrate almost 300 graduating seniors receiving El Dorado Promise scholarships, as well as others. Also present will be Claiborne Deming, Murphy Oil Corp. chairman of the board Claiborne Deming, who first announced the El Dorado Promise in January 2007; Rogers Jenkins, Murphy Oil president and chief executive officer; Johnny Key, Arkansas Commissioner of the State Department of Education and Arkansas First Lady Susan Hutchinson.
Hutchinson took office in January of this year and is a graduate of the University of Arkansas Law School with an extensive background in business and public service. He said he is committed to enhancing public education in the state and has announced upcoming plans to form a new Governor’s Cabinet on Workforce Education, which will include the promotion of additional constructive partnerships among high schools, two-year colleges and business/industry.
Under Hutchinson’s leadership, Arkansas became the first state in the country to require high school computer science courses, with a $5 million initiative to support this action, according to a news release from the El Dorado Education Foundation.
Recently, he and the state were recognized for this accomplishment by Wired.com, according to wired.com/2015/03/arkansas-computer-science/.
“We are happy to have Governor Hutchinson as our keynote speaker,” said Alva Reibe, EHS principal. “One of his highest priorities is the advancement of public education in Arkansas.”
The El Dorado Promise is a $50 million scholarship program funded entirely by Murphy Oil Corp. for EHS graduates. Over the past eight years, the Promise has provided funding to 1,588 EHS graduates attending 60 colleges and universities. The Promise reaches beyond the boundaries of economic need and academic ability to pay up to 100 percent of college tuition and mandatory fees. It is for all students graduating from EHS who have been El Dorado Public School students since at least the ninth grade.
With national student-loan debt for college graduates now reaching an average of $33,000, according to the Wall Street Journal, the Promise can make a substantial difference.
According to Sylvia Thompson, director of El Dorado Promise for the El Dorado Public Schools, over 85 percent of last year’s Promise scholars are attending college. This percentage is significantly above both the Arkansas college-going rate, at 54.3 percent and the national rate, at 66.2 percent, according to the Arkansas Department of Higher Education.
Jim Tucker, superintendent of El Dorado Schools, said that district initiatives work with the Promise to create a college-going culture from kindergarten to graduation. “Because we know that our students will have the opportunity to attend college, preparing them for post-secondary education is always at the forefront of our minds. We want students to have the knowledge they need to be productive individuals who will positively impact our society.”
“The Promise is here for people to access. It has created a different learning atmosphere, where going to college is expected. If it’s important that your children go to college, we can provide that here. We can have a significant impact,” Deming said.
Alice Mahony, Arkansas State Board of Education member and vice-president and co-founder of the El Dorado Education Foundation, said, “The success of the El Dorado Promise continues to benefit all. Some have begun to return to El Dorado to live and work. These graduates, as well as others, believe in the value of education.”
According to the 2015 El Dorado Promise impact report, dramatic increases have been seen in Advanced Placement (AP) course offerings and enrollment since the implementation of the El Dorado Promise scholarship program. A study by the Office for Education Policy at the University of Arkansas – on the impact of the El Dorado Promise – shows that in 2006, prior to the Promise, about 11 percent of El Dorado High School students were taking one or more AP tests. By 2014, nearly one quarter of the high school’s population was taking at least one AP course.
Bonnie Haynie, director of professional development/federal programs for the school district, said that this spring, almost 750 AP exams will be taken at EHS, which will be a new school district record. To read more about the impact the Promise is having on El Dorado Public Schools, go to www.eldoradopromise.com.
In January, Promise scholars from various colleges and careers returned to El Dorado to share their experiences, visiting EHS teachers and current students. The Promise also has been in the news, in a Yale School of Management Promise Case Study for the PromiseNet 2014 conference in November, according to www.citiesofpromise.com.
Additionally, it was featured in the ASCD Education Update (source: www.ascd.org/publications/newsletters/education-update/dec14/vol56/num12/Banking-On-a-Promise.aspx). This month, the Promise was highlighted in Talk Business and Politics (source:http://talkbusiness.net/2015/03/big-companies-in-a-small-town/). For the PromiseNet conference, a new PromiseNet video was shown, produced by EHS graduate Alex Jeffery, which is available at www.eldoradopromise.com.
Promise students can attend any accredited two or four-year college or university in the United States and the Class of 2015 will sign EHS letters of intent for 35 separate institutions. EHS students will be attending the following in-state colleges and universities: Arkansas Baptist College, Arkansas State University, Arkansas Tech University, Harding College, Henderson State University, Hendrix College, John Brown University, Ouachita Baptist University, Philander Smith College, Pulaski Technical College, South Arkansas Community College, Southern Arkansas University, Southern Arkansas University – Tech, University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, University of Arkansas at Little Rock, University of Arkansas at Monticello and the University of Central Arkansas.
Out-of-state colleges and universities that El Dorado Promise students plan to attend this year are: Baylor University, Belhaven University, Carnegie Mellon University, East Texas Baptist University, Jackson State University, Louisiana College, Louisiana State University, Louisiana Tech University, Northwestern University, Southwestern Assemblies of God University, Texas A&M University, Texas A&M University – Texarkana, Texas State University, University of Central Missouri, University of Louisiana at Monroe, University of Nebraska, University of North Texas, University of the South – Sewanee, and the University of Texas at Austin. Graduates joining the military begin scholarships after completing tours of duty.
Academic Signing Day’s title sponsor is First Financial Bank. The event is a partnership of EDEF, EDPS, Murphy Oil Corp., and the El Dorado Promise. Other sponsors are: the El Dorado News-Times, W.I. Bell Photography and South Arkansas Community College. Academic Signing Day committee members are: co-chairs Alice Mahony and Bonnie Haynie, Beth Weldon, Jim Tucker, Alva Reibe, Katie Sandifer, Lila Phillips, Sylvia Thompson and Heath Waldrop.