Education game changer at Bellarmine?

Qualified students graduating from Louisville high schools can receive automatic admission to Bellarmine University under a new initiative that provides these students more options for an affordable education in their hometown.  Lauren Keeling with Bellarmine join Tony & Scott to talk about how future students can qualify. 

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Good morning. I'm Tony Cruz withLauren Keeling. Welcome back, Lauren from
Bellarmin University. We sure enjoy talkingto you. How are you I'm doing
wel how are you well? Scottygave me the notes on what you're doing
there at BU and it's right inmy wheelhouse of making college education more affordable.
Tell us what you're doing at BellarminUniversity. Yeah, so we're really

(00:23):
excited. We just announced our BellermanDirect program. And this is a program
where we're working with local area highschools, so the JCPS high schools and
the loisll archdis In high schools tocreate a streamlined admission process for students.
So this reduces challenges and barriers thatstudents have experienced when applying for college.

(00:45):
And essentially they'll fill out a veryquick form and if they have a two
point seventy five GPA or higher,they get us their transcripts from their high
schools and they're automatically accepted to Bellermanwith at least an eighteen thousand dollars scholarship.
I wish public universities were listening tothis right now. I mean a
private university doing this. I meanthat's amazing. I mean, everybody gets

(01:08):
in or do you have a capat all? There's no cap. We
are excited to welcome as many LouisvilleHigh School students as we can to Bellerman.
It's important for the community. Youknow that we invest in the students
that are in our community to eventuallyserve our community. And we know we
can do that at Bellerman because wehave great career outcomes for our students.

(01:30):
Ninety nine percent of them are placedin jobs or graduate schools six months after
graduation. So we know that ifwe pour into the lobll community that these
students will pour back into it oncethey graduate. You know what, that's
an excellent thought, and I agreewith that kind of a situation. But
from the standpoint, college has justgotten so unaffordable for so many people,

(01:53):
not or you know, you can'tknock a private university for whatever their tuition
is. But public have been doingthis for you know, years and years
and years, and yet here's aprivate university showing us how I think all
universities should try to do it.Get more of their alumni. I guess
alumni are helping to fund this,Uh, this this particular scholarship. Well,

(02:16):
it's it's through funding from other sources, but also just from us thinking
creatively about what we can do tohelp demystify the price of college. Right,
so, students have a lot ofeligibility for these merit awards, but
also through aid through the through fillingout the FASPA. And you know we've

(02:36):
talked about the FASPA before, butif a students is able to fill out
the FASTPA, they're often eligible formore aid than what they anticipated. And
we have programs like the Public PricePromise and our Kentucky Hope scholars program that
reduces that cost even more. So, our goal at bellerman Is is to
remove affordability as a reason for astudent to attend. All right, let's

(03:00):
go over to one more time.How did these qualified students, students with
a two point seventy five grade pointaverage or better get to be a part
of this process? Where do theygo? They'll go to our website and
they'll fill out the application form whichis available now. So as students are
getting ready to think about back toschool, that can go ahead and fill

(03:22):
out that form. And then oncethey get back to school, they'll ask
their counselors to submit their transcripts overto us and they'll get an emission letter
as soon as possible. All right, act SAT Does that matter in this
case? It does not. Well, how long we go ahead? I'm
sorry, Lauren? How long wouldyou how long would this program go on?

(03:43):
Now? Are you're going to lookbeyond this year for this program?
This is an excellent opportunity, wehope, so, yes, for sure.
I mean we see this as amainstay in our admission program. Wow,
that is amazing. I only wishsomething like this was around when I
went to school. Tony said,it's become harder and harder to afford education
now for a lot of families.And it's great to see you guys at

(04:04):
Bellaman reaching out and doing this forfolks. Fantastic, it really is,
you know, with all the ancillariesthat young people have to pay for now,
I like to see in Bellerman helpout. And so I think that
I hope that this is setting somethingup for all of the education be a
public corporate. Yeah. And beforewe let you go, Lauren, have

(04:25):
you heard any feedback from other schoolsmaybe around the country that might start to
take notice of what you're doing atBellerman. We have you know, there's
a lot of schools right now thatare considering programs like this because we understand
as institutions that you know, sometimesit's almost impossible for a student to get
admitted to school and then to payfor school afterwards. So you know,

(04:47):
in higher education, I think we'restarting to see that less barriers is more
important. Yeah, wow, great, great work. Wow, Lauren,
thanks so much for your time.I do appreciate it, and well,
thank you all. You know,okay you grad but I can't. Larns
are closer to battlement all the timewith all the things you all do.
There, go ahead, Scottie,all right, oh okay, we're good

(05:11):
to break more coming up here atnews radio A forty w A ch S.
Thanks so much again. That isLauren Keelling with Bellerman University. See
so much. You don't discage.Nice to get that too,