The ACCESS Project at Hamilton College has received a $40,000 FIPSE (Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education) grant from the federal Department of Education, Office of Post-Secondary Education. The grant will be used for assessment and evaluation. Hamilton will participate with a network of 11 other colleges to design curriculum and develop strategies to teach the low-income parents who comprise the ACCESS Project.
The ACCESS Project is the first of its kind in Central New York. The curriculum for the project was developed to provide non-traditional, low-income parent students with an opportunity to develop background knowledge necessary to succeed in a four-year program at a prestigious liberal arts institution like Hamilton College. ACCESS offers its students - most of whom are seriously disadvantaged - the opportunity to develop the writing, reading and oral skills necessary to transfer from the ACCESS Project into the more traditional setting of Hamilton College or similar colleges in Central New York. It also provides extensive long-term educational, social service, employment, and family services support. The first class of 17 students completed the program in July, and the second class of 21 men and women began classes at Hamilton College on August 27.
Hamilton College is donating free tuition to ACCESS students in addition to use of its facilities, computers for the classroom, free lunch and entry to cultural events on the campus for students and their children. The program also provides books and supplies, coordination of childcare, transportation and family maintenance funds, research and work-study positions, counseling and tutoring.
The program is supported by Hamilton College, the State of New York, the Watson Lowery Memorial Fund and the Frank W. Baker Fund of the Community Foundation of Herkimer and Oneida Counties Inc., The Charles A. Frueauff Foundation, Inc., the Arthur Levitt Public Affairs Center and the Kirkland Project for the Study of Gender, Society and Culture.
