SAVANNAH, Ga. (WTOC) – It was a great day on Welcome to Our Community as we welcomed Nancy Baker of Savannah Scholars, an organization working to help strong students—whose families may not have the resources or college experience—make college attainable and affordable.
Baker, who has spent more than 20 years in college access work in Chicago and other areas, said she moved to Savannah three years ago and quickly saw a need. The mission is rooted in an inequity she witnessed firsthand as a high school teacher: “super smart kids” had very different outcomes, often based largely on income and access to information. Students from middle- and higher-income families, she said, typically grow up assuming college is a given. Lower-income students, especially those whose parents didn’t attend college, may want the same goal—but don’t know how to “decode” the process.
Finding students early—and building support for the long haul
Savannah Scholars identifies students as early as eighth grade, relying on referrals from guidance counselors, principals, teachers, neighbors, and others who know a student who is high-achieving and lower-income. For Savannah Scholars, “high-achieving” generally means a B average or better.
But Baker emphasized the program isn’t about forcing a path—students need to genuinely want it. The goal is to find students who are saying, in essence: I want college, I just don’t know how to make it real.…