Congratulations to the Starfish Class of 2010!
Our Scholars Continue Starfish’s 100% High School Graduation Rate

June 6, 2010 – Starfish Initiative headquarters was filled to near-capacity June 3 at the graduation party we hosted for our 44 high school graduates. Since 2003, Starfish Initiative has provided mentors to high-achieving, low-income high school students in Marion County. Contrasted with alarmingly low graduation rates at Indianapolis high schools, 100% of high school students who complete the Starfish Initiative program will graduate from high school this year – as the Starfish Class of 2009 did last year. All are currently graduated, except one who will finish in July.

Scholars, mentors, and families gathered in the Webster Commons for cake and punch, then moved upstairs into the training room for recognition of scholarships and other achievements.

Director of Scholar Services Jimmy Graves reminded our graduates that “This is the end of one chapter of your lives, but the beginning of another.”

After he was introduced in his new role in alumni relations, Tim Clark joked and said, “You may have thought you were done with us, but we’re not done with you!” He more seriously added that the support we offer our Scholars will continue through college graduation – and beyond.

Starfish Alumni now officially include 1 valedictorian, 2 salutatorians, and many, many more scholarship recipients. In fact, this Starfish Class of 2010 will receive a combined $1.6 million in scholarships – and that number is growing. Forty-four new Starfish alumni will attend 16 different colleges and universities this fall and, with this class of graduates, Starfish will have 90 alumni enrolled in higher education.

Don Setterlof, Executive Director of Indiana Dollars for Scholars, spoke to our graduates and presented an award to Starfish Initiative Dollars for Scholars chapter president Andrene Heron for our chapter’s outstanding efforts in fundraising. Four of our Scholars were then awarded college scholarships from our chapter: Andrea Stanarevic received the Academic Scholarship Award; Tyler Bowman, the John Voigt Leadership Award; Vivian Danko, the Community Service Award; and Chrisjaan Whitson, the Dollars for Scholars Volunteer Award.

Abby Cooper, from the Indiana University chapter of College Mentors for Kids, also spoke and encouraged our graduates to become involved in mentoring a grade-school-aged child next year.

We offered our graduating Scholars a few small tokens of congratulations. Each received a certificate acknowledging their accomplishment as well as an orange-and-turquoise ribboned bundle containing a DVD of photographs of the Class of 2010 (with music) and two books: “The Naked Roommate: and 107 Other Issues You Might Run Into in College” and “40 Money Management Tips Every College Freshman Should Know.”

The evening ended with many smiles, temporary hugs goodbye, and promises to stay in touch.