News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Cumberland County needs approximately thirty-five more Tennessee Promise mentors.
Tennessee Promise, a last-dollar scholarship program, requires each student to have contact with a mentor.
Brad Allamong is the President of the Crossville-Cumberland County Chamber of Commerce.
“We have been working with tnAchieves for the last, well the program has been in existence, this will be its fifth year. And we help them try to locate the mentors to support the students,” Allamong said. “It used to be that the assignments were made late in the year. But now it is made in March or April, the students are actually paired up with their mentor counterpart.”
Cumberland County needs a minimum of 61 mentors.
Allamong said the number of seniors applying affects the number of mentors needed. Currently, tnAchieves estimates Cumberland County will have over 400 local high school seniors in the Tennessee Promise Program.
“Our number of mentors then goes down if the number of pooled students is not as great as it was last year,” Allamong said. “So I think we were probably in the seventies, mid-seventies, last year in terms of mentors.”
Last year, Cumberland County had approximately 520 seniors in the program, Allamong said.
Allamong said he believes the number of seniors decreased this year because of missed deadlines.
Mentors volunteer about 10-15 hours annually and assist 5-10 high school seniors. Allamong said mentors help seniors make the transition to college.
“I would think that the biggest [benefit] would be that someone that has been trained that is there to rely upon, or fall back on, or support these students as they go through the process of making their application,” Allamong said. “Students have to apply for all financial aid that is available to them. Then following up with students and staying in touch.”
Allamong said the county has never failed to meet the minimum and hopes that this year will continue that trend.
