Chuck Licis-Masson, Program Coordinator for Take Stock in Children and the Executive Director of the Monroe County Education Foundation, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about the program.
What does the Monroe County Education Foundation do?
Licis-Masson said, “We’re the fundraising arm for Take Stock in Children. So when I’m out at the Rotary clubs in the Chambers of Commerce and different events talking about Take Stock in Children, I’m raising funds for Take Stock through the Monroe County Education Foundation, which is a 501c3 charitable organization.”
The fundraising directly helps students in Monroe County.
Licis-Masson said, “We’ve awarded 1,082 scholarship scholarships since 2001 to deserving students in Monroe County and those scholarships are Florida prepaid tuition scholarships. They’re state matched. So for every dollar I raise, Florida Prepaid matches that dollar and I purchase these scholarships, they’re for low income at risk students. They’re called the Stanley Tate Stars scholarship program, and we purchased two plus twos. What that means 60 college hours, or 60 hours at the College of the Florida Keys, for example, or Santa Fe College in Gainesville or Miami Dade, and then 60 hours at a university, the 12 state universities. That helps our students earn an associate’s degree and then as well as a bachelor degree in the field of their choice. As a foundation, we’ve been purchasing two year dormitory plans as well, which helps a lot, tremendously with our students who need housing on the mainland, if they go directly to university. It’s a great investment for the foundation and for the students. We own the scholarships. It is inflation protected, so we’re purchasing scholarships now for students who are currently in fifth grade, because I have to have a scholarship on hand for every single student in our program and I have 357 students right now in our program, and we’re going to look at now for next year, I have these fifth graders who are rising to sixth grade, and sixth graders rising to seventh, etc., and we’ll need scholarships for those students. So I’m looking at purchasing scholarships for those kids, and I park them out when they graduate. So we’re looking at what 2032, 2033, 2034, 2035 and it protects the tuition. So if University of Florida increases 15% tuition, for example, whatever I purchase, it locks it in, at today’s rate, and guarantees coverage of that tuition, regardless of where it goes in terms of increases. So it’s a fantastic investment, and the foundation owns those scholarships, as I said, so if a student only uses three quarters of that scholarship because they had extra credits through dual enrollment or Advanced Placement credits, we retain the other quarter of those other hours, 30 hours, and we can assign them to another student, we can reinvest them into a new plan. We hold on to those donor dollars, so every donor dollar that we raise is put to excellent use.”
It also helps the graduation rate of the school district.
Licis-Masson said, “I couldn’t agree more. Our students, they qualify not only economically, they have to be low income and there are certain guidelines that are listed on our website, but also they have to have academic eligibility requirements as well. They have to meet those and they have to maintain a 2.5 grade point average, have A’s, B’s and C’s every quarter, meet with their mentor, volunteer mentor every month. Meet with our college success coach, attend our workshops. There are a lot of things, a lot of responsibilities on the part of the student, and our graduating class, we have 81 students who will graduate this year, and usually our graduating class, GPA, the class average runs about 3.6, 3.7 which is phenomenal when you compare it to their incoming grade point average of maybe 2.0 or 2.5. So they really strive and work hard to earn those grades and do very, very well in those classes and then they have friends, and they talk about Take Stock in Children, and what they’re doing at Take Stock with their peers. So it lifts. It’s that rising tide where we help lift the tide for all students in Monroe County.”
Mentors are critical for the program and Mentor Appreciation events are coming up.
Licis-Masson said, “January was National Mentoring Month. We appreciate all our mentors for what they do. They are really the foundation of our organization. We cannot do what we do without our mentors. They meet with our students one day a week during the school year, during school hours, on school campus and they’re not tutors and they’re not disciplinarians, but they’re confidants and advocates. They help those our students learn self advocacy skills, problem solving skills. They look to the future. What do they want to do? I always ask my students, what do you want to wake up every morning and do? What would make you happy? As opposed to asking a student, what do you want to be, it’s like, what makes you happy, and let’s find a career path that aligns with what makes you happy, because a miserable existence is getting up every morning and going to a job that you don’t like and you’re not happy. So let’s help them find that pathway and their passions and money then will come as a result. So we want to celebrate our mentors for all that they do, and we’ve set up mentor appreciation events. The first one is next Tuesday, February 18, and that’ll be in Marathon at Brutus Restaurant and Seafood Market at 5:30 on the 18th. Then the following week, we’re in Upper keys at the Crooked Palm Cabana, which is at the 90 mile marker thereabouts in Tavernier from 5:30 to seven to recognize our Upper Keys mentors. Then on March 6, we are going to duck into Ocean Reef. We have a tremendous amount of support from Ocean Reef, not only in terms of fundraising dollars, but mentors as well. We have a lot of mentors from Ocean Reef who come down to Key Largo and go to Coral Stores and mentor our students. So we want to recognize our Ocean Reef residents and mentors, and so we’ll be there on March 6. Then finally, Lower Keys, Key West we will be here in March 11 at the DoubleTree, from 5:30 until 7. All are welcome to join. It’s for mentors, but it’s also for those who are interested to learn more about Take Stock in Children, if they might be interested in mentoring, or if they’d like to contribute to the organization, to the scholarship fund as well. We’ll have some students at these events. They can talk to students and mentors. So it’s an appreciation event, but also a learning opportunity for those who are unfamiliar with Take Stock in Children.”
The Take Stock in College and Career Program helps support not only the students in the high schools preparing for college, but it continues to support them into post secondary education.
Licis-Masson said, “Take Stock in Children is a statewide organization. They work with Tallahassee, and they receive funding from Tallahassee to the tune of between $7 and $8 million to then give out to the individual affiliates, such as Monroe County, based on our enrollment and services. What they’ve also done is they’ve asked for a separate funding stream to fund Take Stock in College, and it’s a statewide program. I think they have three or four college advocates in each of the areas, the panhandle, Central and South. Those representatives, those coaches, work with our students, all of the Take Stock students from the 45 affiliates who are enrolled in college or university and organize different events. They’re a lifeline. So it’s another lifeline for students if they’re at University of Central Florida in Orlando, they’ll have contact with a Take Stock in College coach from Take Stock, in addition to our program in Monroe County. We’re often the first line of communication, because we hold the scholarship and we can help guide them, but sometimes they need a little bit more hand holding or advice or advocacy, working with the college or university directly, and so that coach will help them with that, as well as course selection, making sure that they’re following the right pathway on that or transferring from a college to university. If you have an Associates, you have automatic admission to any of the 12 state universities. But you may not have automatic admission into the School of Engineering, for example, because there are certain prerequisites for the School of Engineering at UCF and to make sure that our students earning an associate those courses are aligning with the admission requirements for the College of Engineering or whatever college that they might be interested in at that university.”
The Department of Education does provide at least some funding for the statewide program and hopes are high that that won’t change.
Licis-Masson said, “We’re watching that closely. I know Take Stock is as well and then Take Stock state organization to which we belong. They do have contacts in Tallahassee. They work closely with our state legislature, Take Stock in Children, Holly Raschein is on our board, she’s a former state rep, and they’re strong advocates of Take Stock in Children. It’s army of people who are working with Tallahassee and the legislature to make sure that the funding is there, but it’s dependent on what comes out of Washington as well. There’s also the talk of possibly taxing scholarships for students. So if they receive a scholarship, they may have to pay tax on that scholarship, the value of that scholarship. So that’s something we’re also looking closely at, how would that impact our program? How would that impact our students and how would they need to budget their funds to be able to cover that cost, that additional cost that they weren’t expecting? So we continue to watch and monitor. A lot is happening right now coming out of Washington. When the dust settles, we’ll see where we are and but there are people on the ground who are focused on those aspects, and making sure that the program is moving forward and that we continue to provide the services that we can with what we have.”
What’s one of the success stories?
Licis-Masson said, “There are a lot of stories. I received an email last year from a Take Stock student, he graduated, went into engineering, I believe at UCF, also entered the military, and he’s in the military and he is so proud of the fact that he is serving our country, and he was able to get his degree with Take Stock in Children, and combine that with military service. The recent one that many of you may have seen is our rocket scientist, I would I call him, Alejandro from Marathon, and he’s working on the Blue Origin, actually, and he was out of Texas, and he was hoping to come into Florida as well. I think the project is going to move him back to Florida. So he was excited to be able to go to, I still call it Cape Canaveral. I think it might be called something different now, but the Space Center here in Florida, and the county Space Center. Then we also have some stories students who have, we jump start them. So they go into their field, they earn their degree and one young lady earned her degree in medicine, and she wanted to become a dentist and she got her dental degree from Ohio, actually. So she ending up going from Florida to Ohio, and she’s now a dentist and doing dentistry. Then there’s also those students who are not going the traditional route. We have students who go into diesel mechanics, for example and a student who went to Immokalee, and he earned his diesel mechanic degree or certification, and he found a job back in the Keys. We need those trades people here in the Keys and he found a lucrative job here in the Keys, so he’s able to come back home and in a short amount of time, it only took two years, it was not a four year program. It was a two year program and he’s doing what he loves. As well as a marine mechanic who has his own mobile marine business in Marathon, from Take Stock in Children, students who are working in the DA’s office down here, they’re in law, I have some teachers as well, and continues to help our students and other students as well. So our kids are doing great things.”
For more information, click here: https://monroecountyedfound.com/about-take-stock