D.C. OSP 3rd Annual Family Holiday Party

On Friday, December 21st the Trust hosted its 3rd annual D.C. OSP Family Holiday Party to celebrate the holiday season. The event was held at the Columbia Heights Youth Center where families currently participating in the OSP were invited to attend. The night was filled with food, gifts, student and school performances and a special guest from the North Pole - Santa!

Families also had the opportunity to be introduced to the new Director of the OSP and Trust CEO, Samantha Kirby Caruth and Ed Davies, respectively. It was wonderful to see families arrive and come together to enjoy a time of year dedicated to family. We had a student play Ave Maria on violin and Kuumba Learning Center students dance. Santa arrived afterwards to provide students with book bags filled with gifts. 

Thanks to volunteers from Institute for Justice, friends of the program and Trust staff the night was a huge success. Families left home with their bellies full and gifts for their children. It was a joyous night for all!

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year from your friends at the Trust!

To view more pictures, please visit our website - www.dcscholarships.org

“The scholarship was not just financial aid it also provided me with many other opportunities and helped me establish a focus on my future.”

My name is Miryam Cabieses, I am 19 years old and currently am a sophomore at George Mason University (GMU) located in Fairfax, Virginia. At the moment I have not officially declared a major but I plan to major in systems engineering. I was a student in the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP) from 2005 until 2011.

During my time with the OSP I attended Sacred Heart School, and St. John’s College High School. While attending St. John’s I participated in Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) for a year, as part of the drill team. That program enforced respect, discipline, and the importance in quality of work. I was also a member of the National Honor Society as well as the Spanish National Honor Society, which required an overall GPA average of at least 3.6. The primary advantage of attending an OSP school was the challenging academic environment; I felt the courses offered were more advanced. After graduating, I found that my academic achievement offered me many options for finding colleges of my choice. Thanks to the scholarship and the sturdy foundation I received through my academic experiences, I was able to graduate from high school and become a student at GMU.

The classes I am taking now are not as difficult because of the similarity to the classes I took in high school; I feel prepared and ready. The scholarship was not just financial aid it also provided me with many other opportunities and helped me establish a focus on my future. Being a part of the OSP helped give me the initiative to seek out programs that would provide financial assistance for college.

Many struggle to give their students this opportunity. To future students I would say you need to realize that it is an immense opportunity that not many are given.  After you are established at the school of your choice, it will be easy to notice the difference in environment, the effort from teachers to help and the change in your own work ethic.

My lasting impression of the OSP is that the staff cared about the education of its participants, and were always concerned about us, and how our progress was with the scholarship.

The OSP is a quality program for families that strive to give their children a better education. This kind of experience provides a foundation for students of a realistic perspective of the world through educational opportunities.

Are you a current OSP family with a student in the highest grade level at their current school? Have you started thinking about schools for next year? You need to begin planning now for the 2013-14 school year! Join us on October 11th for our School Information & Application Workshop for Transitioning Students

Orientation for OSP Families

The Trust hosted its annual Orientation for Families in the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP) on Wednesday, September 19^th at Archbishop Carroll High School. We welcomed returning and new families of the program to join as we discussed how to maximize their children’s scholarship as well as how to plan and budget for the 2012-13 school year.

Salma Khan, Director of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP) was the speaker for the night. Parents gained valuable information about transitioning to a private school, how the scholarship pays for their students services and the in’s and out’s in using their child’s scholarship throughout the school year. Also, OSP parents had the opportunity to ask questions and share tips with other parents in the program.

It was an informative night for many parents and we were happy to see all those who could make it out.

For more pictures, visit our website - www.dcscholarships.org

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