University administration, City Year corps members and City Year staff cheered Wednesday morning as the official partnership between the University and City Year, providing one graduate scholarship per year for a City Year member or alumni, was signed.
City Year is an organization that partners 17 to 24-year-olds across the country with students in the highest poverty schools as tutors or mentors for a year, said Jennifer Reilly, co-founder of City Year, Inc.
Pete November, vice president of City Year Inc., said the organization has partnered with 30 universities, and LSU is the first public institution.
Over the past four years, 75 LSU students have applied for City Year, and 25 students have served, November said.
November said the partnership between the University and City Year will provide a graduate scholarship for a member or alumni of the organization.
“This makes an LSU education more accessible and affordable to a person who has given a year of service,” November said.
November said the organization focuses on keeping students in school and on track, and the University supports those objectives.
November said City Year corps members “serve in the most challenged urban schools.”
He said the organization serves 20 Louisiana cities, and corps members are at schools from before the first bell rings until the end of after-school programs.
Corps members identify students who have fallen off track and help them succeed, November said.
He said members participate in tutoring, sports and arts programs.
Chris Trahan, director of communications and community engagement for the East Baton Rouge Parish School System, said there are 33 City Year members serving four schools in the area dedicating 700 hours each.
Trahan said the members help with tutoring and mentoring as well as volunteering with organizations like Roman Catholic voluntary organization the Society of St. Vincent De Paul.
Chancellor Michael Martin said the partnership is a “model for sister schools across the country.”
 
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Contact Celeste Ansley at [email protected]