The Flint Promise Scholarship Program received a funding boost when it was awarded a grant from the National Basketball Association Foundation’s Round 16 grants earlier this year.
The NBA Foundation, launched in 2020, regularly provides grants to organizations and programs that support education, career development, and professional advancement. The Round 16 funding was provided to dozens of organizations nationally with a focus in tech, media, art, entertainment, and creative industries programming that connects creativity with workforce readiness and preparation as a way to help young people build career skills. Grants of up to $150,000 each were awarded in this round of funding.
The Flint Promise Scholarship Program fund was established in 2018 at the Community Foundation of Greater Flint, with initial support from Detroit Pistons owner and Flint area native Tom Gores and the Consumers Energy Foundation. The program is administered by Flint & Genesee Education & Talent, a division of the Flint & Genesee Group, and helps make college more accessible for students who live in and graduate from a high school in the city of Flint.
“Flint Promise was established to provide an opportunity for students in Flint who may not have otherwise been able to move on to higher education,” said Brianna Mosier, executive director of Flint & Genesee Education & Talent, in a news release. “We are grateful to the NBA Foundation, as well as the Detroit Pistons, for providing this support to help keep our program going and growing.”
The funding will help the program sustain college success coaching, expand support into the summer, and strengthen outreach strategies. Since its inception, hundreds of Flint students have benefitted from the program. Academic success coaches provide personal support to students, and then also follow Flint Promise Scholars through their higher education journey, ensuring they are successful in their classes, guiding them through scheduling and how to get textbooks, finding them tutoring services, or connecting them to resources outside of school that they might need.
On its website, Flint & Genesee Education & Talent recently profiled Noelah Russell, a Flint Promise Scholar who graduated from Genesee Early College in 2023. She’s now pursuing a career in nursing and credits her success coach with helping her with many steps in her education and career path.
“My success coach is there for me just to chat, and she’s supportive not just for my academics but if I need anything, or if I just want to talk,” Russell said in the story. “Besides the assistance of being able to go to school, they also offer workshops, and they help you with how to get jobs, how to budget, how to do public speaking, and other skills that are very useful in the real world. I’ve been learning not just from my classes but from this program, too.”
More information about the scholarship is available online.
Header photo of Flint Promise Scholars courtesy of Flint & Genesee Education & Talent
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