FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 10, 2019
Media Contacts:
APS: Corey Christiansen| cpchristiansen@aurorak12.org | 720-591-0140
Wells Fargo: Nicole Schwab| nicole.schwab@wellsfargo.com | 303-863-4781
AURORA, CO – As a first-generation college student and an aspiring international health worker, Hana Fentahun has big goals for her education and career. Those goals come with a big cost though in the form of college tuition. After recently graduating from Rangeview High School in Aurora Public Schools, Fentahun is now preparing to attend the prestigious George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Her cost of tuition is steep at more than $70,000 for just the first year. Fortunately, Rangeview’s College and Career Center has helped her find enough scholarship money to nearly erase her tuition bill.
“I’ve had a lot of support to make college more affordable,” said Fentahun. “It’s made me more confident in my future and helped me go to my dream school.” Fentahun is just one of thousands of APS students who have benefitted from working with their high school College and Career Centers. The centers are run by the Aurora Public Schools Foundation and will now be able to help even more students with a new $75,000 grant from Wells Fargo.
College and Career Centers provide high school students with critical information on post-secondary options and tools to help them find and pursue their goals after graduation. For just a $100 investment, the APS Foundation is able to research and identify scholarship opportunities that can turn into more than $10,000 in scholarships for a single student. This new grant shows a significant and ongoing commitment by Wells Fargo to support the education and success of local students.
“Since 2018, Wells Fargo has donated to and partnered with the Aurora Public Schools Foundation to help build College and Career Centers across the city, and we are proud to have donated a total of $150,000 over the last year,” said Derrick Fuller, Wells Fargo district manager for Aurora. “Higher education costs are a large burden on today’s students, and Wells Fargo believes in APS Foundation’s mission to help them afford their college dreams.”
The APS Foundation created its first College and Career Center in 2014. It now operates centers at four APS high schools and has a goal to build centers at two additional high schools. The centers have played an essential role in boosting APS graduation rates and helping students earn scholarships. Through the 2017-18 school year, the centers helped students secure more than $56 million in scholarship funds.
###
About Aurora Public Schools
Aurora Public Schools is the fifth largest school district in Colorado. APS serves approximately 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 nearly 25%. 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.
