FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 22, 2018
Media Contacts:
APS: Corey Christiansen| cpchristiansen@aurorak12.org | 720-591-0140
Wells Fargo: Nicole Schwab| nicole.schwab@wellsfargo.com | 303-863-4781
AURORA PUBLIC SCHOOLS FOUNDATION EXPANDING COLLEGE & CAREER STUDENT SERVICES WITH $55,000 GRANT FROM WELLS FARGO
Foundation building new College and Career Center at Gateway High School
AURORA, CO – The Aurora Public Schools Foundation is creating a new College and Career Center thanks to a generous $55,000 grant from Wells Fargo. This comes after Wells Fargo already awarded a $20,000 grant to the APS Foundation earlier this year. In total, the $75,000 will help pay for the construction and operation of a new College and Career Center at Gateway High School.
The APS Foundation created its first College and Career Center in 2015. With the addition of Gateway, it will now fund centers at four APS high schools. The centers provide students with valuable resources and guidance to plan for a successful post-secondary future. They have played an essential role in boosting APS graduation rates and helping students earn prestigious scholarships. In 2017-18, an incredible 15 APS students were named Daniels Scholars. That’s more than 10% of all the Daniels Scholars in Colorado! All but one of these 15 scholars came from high schools with College and Career Centers.
“Working with the APS Foundation to help create the College and Career Center is something Wells Fargo is excited to do,” said Derrick Fuller, district manager for Wells Fargo in Aurora. “The students in Aurora are tomorrow’s future, and we are glad we get to play a part in helping them reach their education goals.”
The new College and Career Center at Gateway will be built in a wing of the school’s existing library. The APS Foundation hired 2014 Gateway graduate Matthew Mason to be the coordinator for the new center. Mason is a first-generation college graduate who recently earned his degree at Colorado State University. “I’m excited to be back working where I went to school and to help inspire the next generation of students to achieve college and career success,” he said.
One of the core beliefs of the district's strategic plan, APS 2020: Shaping the Future, is that community partnerships provide vital resources and opportunities for students and families. The partnership between the APS Foundation and Wells Fargo will ensure that future APS students will have the opportunity to shape a successful future. The Foundation’s goal is to build a College and Career Center at all seven APS high schools.
To learn more about the Aurora Public Schools Foundation, please visit educateaurora.org.
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About Aurora Public Schools
Aurora Public Schools is the fifth largest school district in Colorado. APS serves more than 40,000 students and includes over 60 schools. It is one of the most diverse districts in the state with students from more than 130 countries who speak over 160 languages. Over the past several years, APS has made noteworthy improvements in graduation rates, dropout rates and overall student growth and achievement. In fact, since 2013, APS graduation rates have increased by more than 15%. During that same period of time, its dropout rate has sharply declined from 4.8% to 2.5%. APS 2020 is the district's strategic plan, which includes three strategic goals: 1) Every APS student will have a plan for his or her future, 2) Every student will have a set of skills to implement his or her plan and 3) Every student will have credentials that open doors. It is the district's vision that every student shapes a successful future.
About Aurora Public Schools Foundation
The Aurora Public Schools Foundation was created in 1987 and serves to foster support of education within the Aurora Public School District by bringing together teachers, business people, parents, alumni and community leaders. The APS Foundation advances private, non-profit, public and philanthropic partnerships to develop and leverage resources for projects and programs that drive innovation and excellence for more than 40,000 students, 5,000 teachers and staff, and over 60 schools.
About Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) is a diversified, community-based financial services company with $1.9 trillion in assets. Wells Fargo’s vision is to satisfy our customers’ financial needs and help them succeed financially. Founded in 1852 and headquartered in San Francisco, Wells Fargo provides banking, investment and mortgage products and services, as well as consumer and commercial finance, through 7,950 locations, 13,000 ATMs, the internet (wellsfargo.com) and mobile banking, and has offices in 37 countries and territories to support customers who conduct business in the global economy. With approximately 262,000 team members, Wells Fargo serves one in three households in the United States. Wells Fargo & Company was ranked No. 26 on Fortune’s 2018 rankings of America’s largest corporations. News, insights and perspectives from Wells Fargo are also available at Wells Fargo Stories.
