Pledges Made 12 Years Ago Redeemed in College Hopes

Dawn Ellison was too young to understand it when she was first promised a full scholarship to college. Even after it sank in, there were times when it was hard to see why it mattered.

This month, though, as Ellison and a group of her elementary school classmates graduate from high school, they can finally bask in the reality of the promise made when they were 6.

The students are all part of the Merrill Lynch Scholarship Builder program, one of numerous charitable programs aiming to help low-income children by promising to pay their college costs if they graduate from high school. The local recipients were honored Thursday at a ceremony in downtown Los Angeles.

Merrill Lynch, working with the Los Angeles Urban League, chose Ellison for one of the scholarships 12 years ago, along with 250 other children nationwide.

Twenty-five of the students were in Los Angeles, all students in the same first-grade class at 74th Street School. The Urban League provided a full-time mentor, tutoring and other services to help them reach the goal.

Ellison, who lives in Lawndale, said she began to understand she had a free ride to college after sixth grade. Even so, “I slacked off at the end of junior high school,” she said. “I don’t know if I was having emotional problems or what. I got kind of lazy. It didn’t matter anymore.”

Ellison’s mother scolded her. “She said, ‘you can’t pass this up. Too many people want this, too many would die for it,’ ” Ellison said. Her grades improved. She will enter Marymount College in the fall, and plans to transfer to a university after she completes the two-year program.

Of the original 251 nationwide, 201 are graduating from high school this spring, and nearly all are taking advantage of the scholarship. An additional 22 are expected to graduate next year. Eighteen left the program. Eight others moved and could not be located. Two died.

In Los Angeles, 22 of the original 25 plan to go to college.

Ellison wants to work in the music industry. She said she probably would have gone to college anyway, but the scholarship “takes a load off your back.”

Not all of her friends at Santa Monica High School understand that she has a scholarship. But she said that those who do tell her, “That’s good; that’s the chance of a lifetime,” and “I wish I had one too.”