First scholarships awarded to students at New York inner-city schools

Published: 2005-06-07

NEW YORK (CNS) -- Cardinal Edward M. Egan of New York announced the names of two of the first recipients of a new scholarship program for students in inner-city elementary schools in the archdiocese June 6. Susana Fernandez, with daughter Kaylin Abreu, and Lois Harris, with daughter Kendreana Challenger, appeared with the cardinal at a Manhattan parochial school for the announcement that they had been chosen. In September, Kendreana will enter first grade and Kalin will start kindergarten. Harris said that "as a single parent with a disability" she had been uncertain about how she could pay tuition, and immediately applied for the scholarship when she heard about it at Mass. The Cardinal's Scholarship Program, as it is called, was launched in response to a challenge grant offered by the Children's Scholarship Fund. Asking the New York Archdiocese to raise $2 in new aid for each dollar given in the challenge grant, the Children's Scholarship Fund has offered to allocate up to $1 million a year for eight years to the program.

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