- Jun 6, 2007
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This past Sunday the Philadelphia Inquirer did a big expose on the Milton Hershey School; this is a school set-up by Milton Hershey, the founder of the Hershey candy company. Mr. Hershey long ago past away but funded the school with the proceeds from his ownership of the Hershey Corporation. The funding that the board gets that oversees the school is enormous enough said it is a rich charity. The school is set-up to help poor kids and at-risk kids, its a boarding school, the grade level runs from elementary school thru high school; the real selling point of the school for the kids that attend, the primary reason why they go is that if they graduate they get a good college scholarship.
The Inquirer listed many problems with the school's program. A student earns a portion of the scholarship for each year they are at the Milton Hershey School (MHS) and subtractions are made on the scholarship reward for bad behavior and program infractions; some students graduate with very little scholarship money. Graduates when they go to college have to borrow $2500.00/year and the MHS only pays it back if they finish the college program; these are at risk kids, college is hard enough, a tough transition, for kids with a strong background, a lot of MHS don't make it and are saddled with this onerous debt. The graduates have to use the scholarship within five years of graduating and have to maintain a certain GPA.
The program really needs to be changed. The governing board for the charity has been in a lot of public controversy over the years and could do for some humility and review. The general thesis of the program is great, it is an awesome help to needy kids but it is not effective as it should or could be, it isn't reaching its potential to help people and there is no reason it shouldn't!
The school should open its doors to day students there is a lot of at-risk kids nearby that could benefit; living with a parent or family member guardian probably would make many kids stronger so as to better able to succeed after they graduate. If the board can swing it financially the scholarship should be larger it should be the amount of tuition and room and board at a PA university like Penn State for four years. If a kid graduates from the program he gets at least ninety percent of the scholarship, the maximum loss for behavior issues should be two and a half percent for each year from freshmen through senior year. In college there should be no minimum GPA requirement to maintain the scholarship (remember colleges have their own GPA standard for continuation), graduates get ten years to use the scholarship. A person's twenties is a tough time for a lot of people it is understandable that a person might need to drop out of college for awhile. There should be no requirement on the graduates to take out a $2500/year loan, these kids have a steep enough road to success, the charities mission definitely does not call for making the road steeper. The people that run the program seem to be awfully strict and unsympathetic for a program whose purpose is to help needy kids get and stay on a path where they have a good and productive life!
The Inquirer listed many problems with the school's program. A student earns a portion of the scholarship for each year they are at the Milton Hershey School (MHS) and subtractions are made on the scholarship reward for bad behavior and program infractions; some students graduate with very little scholarship money. Graduates when they go to college have to borrow $2500.00/year and the MHS only pays it back if they finish the college program; these are at risk kids, college is hard enough, a tough transition, for kids with a strong background, a lot of MHS don't make it and are saddled with this onerous debt. The graduates have to use the scholarship within five years of graduating and have to maintain a certain GPA.
The program really needs to be changed. The governing board for the charity has been in a lot of public controversy over the years and could do for some humility and review. The general thesis of the program is great, it is an awesome help to needy kids but it is not effective as it should or could be, it isn't reaching its potential to help people and there is no reason it shouldn't!
The school should open its doors to day students there is a lot of at-risk kids nearby that could benefit; living with a parent or family member guardian probably would make many kids stronger so as to better able to succeed after they graduate. If the board can swing it financially the scholarship should be larger it should be the amount of tuition and room and board at a PA university like Penn State for four years. If a kid graduates from the program he gets at least ninety percent of the scholarship, the maximum loss for behavior issues should be two and a half percent for each year from freshmen through senior year. In college there should be no minimum GPA requirement to maintain the scholarship (remember colleges have their own GPA standard for continuation), graduates get ten years to use the scholarship. A person's twenties is a tough time for a lot of people it is understandable that a person might need to drop out of college for awhile. There should be no requirement on the graduates to take out a $2500/year loan, these kids have a steep enough road to success, the charities mission definitely does not call for making the road steeper. The people that run the program seem to be awfully strict and unsympathetic for a program whose purpose is to help needy kids get and stay on a path where they have a good and productive life!
