The Importance of the A+ Program


Ricardo Rodriguez

Amaya Daniels helps Anyha Cain with geometry honors in Mr. Collins.

Ricardo Rodriguez, Reporter

One of the several opportunities students have in high school to get to their goal of getting into a college or university is the A+ program. The A+ program is a scholarship for high school students to get two years of community college or a technical colleges for free, which they can then transfer into a four college or university. A+ can also qualify students at many other universities, including Mizzou or Truman State, for financial benefit. By receiving the A+ scholarship, students must complete fifty hours of unpaid tutoring by graduation and graduating with the A+ qualifications such as 95% attendance and having a 2.5 GPA.

The importance of the A+ program is to help students with financial assistance to get into college. Russ Crane, A+ coordinator, explained why A+ is important for students and how it will help them. “It helps them receive a scholarship up to $10,000 when they graduate. That money could be used for community colleges and technical schools throughout the state of Missouri, which enables students to cut the cost of their education,” Crane said.

Sophomore Amaya Daniels also commented about how it will help her financially, “It will help me by going to college and getting a small scholarship and be more financially stable when I go to college,” Daniels said.

Despite the positive ways it could help students in the future, the qualifications for A+ are also are important. The 50 hours of volunteering and good grades students must complete and maintain to receive the A+ scholarship.  “I think volunteering is about civic virtue, it’s about doing good for our community. It’s about being committed to something that students signed up too,” Crane said.

Senior Yarelly Laguna talked about on how she is going to complete her volunteering hours before she graduates. Laguna said, “I plan on getting my hours by going to elementary school activities for volunteering and the Oakland science camp.”

Daniels takes a different route to receive her hours. “For right now, I just plan on tutoring geometry honors,” she said, “just to help students who struggle in that class and understand it more from a student’s perspective.”

Not only does the A+ program help financially, but it also helps students status because it makes students appeal to more colleges. “It demonstrates that they are on target to attend a college or university. The attendance portion shows colleges and universities that students are in school 95% of the time. Students GPA is always an indicator for universities and colleges to get accepted into them. And math is key when it comes to acceptance, so having the ACT or EOC qualifying score is very important,” Crane said.

The A+ program helps students dramatically in financial assistance and Crane explained why students should enroll in the A+ program. “They should be enrolled in it, because why not?” he said. “They should be enrolled because one, it cuts the cost of their education. Two, it looks good on a resume for colleges or just applying for jobs,” Crane continued. “And three, it’s good for a backup plan. If for some reason your primary choice doesn’t work out, students can always come back and start the new with this scholarship. It’s available for 4 years after you graduate. So why not?.”

If you want to enroll for the A+ program, the A+ office is located in G204.