Welcome to the Waterbury Talks. I'm your host, Grant Copeland. Today's conversation is with Kelonda Maull. Kelonda is the executive director of Waterbury Promise, an organization in collaboration with the city of Waterbury and Waterbury Public Schools that provides Waterbury High School students with college access opportunities. Waterbury Promise high schoolers are given significant scholarships, support services, and resources that lead to success in college and beyond. And speaking about her own college journey, Kelonda calls herself the girl who was taking out the loans and who didn't realize the financial burdens that were being placed on her in the process. It's why she's so passionate about changing that aspect for the future leaders from Waterbury. Learn more about her story, and the amazing promise being made to all college ready high school residents in the city, as The Waterbury talks with Kelonda Maull. Thank you for offering your insights today, Kelonda. So as we sit here at the Waterbury Promise Office downtown, you've come a long way since visiting the city as a roller skating teenager, haven't you?

Yes, I have.

We're happy to have you here again in Waterbury. Tell us about your role at Waterbury Promise.

Wow. I'm the founding Executive Director. Very exciting to be here. Not only am I managing the fiscal responsibility, but also the day-to-day operations. The main thing is getting the scholarships to the students.

Waterbury Promise, as you're saying, is all about helping Waterbury High school students access colleges. How did the organization come about and what are some of the highlights, if you will, so far.

As it was told to me, and the mayor can share this and tell this story way better than I can, but the mayor really wanted to focus in on education and partnered with the Cigna Foundation. As you may know with the city, the question started coming about can there be a promise program here in Waterbury? Um, we are a sister organization of Hartford. There's also a New Haven Promise, and what would that look like here in Waterbury? So we definitely have that commitment from the city and the Board of Ed, so Mayor O' Leary, and Dr. Ruffin, and a team of board members that we are so happy to have sat down and figured out how they can make it happen. So with the commitment from the city, the Cigna Foundation, the Board of Ed, we were able to form the organization.

So you've come to the right place. In terms of the state of Connecticut and the greater Waterbury area with so many colleges and universities that are available to high school students, how do you go about that part of it? In other words, connecting with and partnering with local colleges and universities.

Yeah, so UConn was the first to jump on board and Eastern Connecticut State University has also joined forces with us. I think being out in the community, speaking with provosts on campus, speaking with the presidents, being able to have those conversations about what this means for Waterbury students, I think it's a benefit and a win-win, not only for us, but for the colleges and universities here in Connecticut. We want to keep our students here. We want them to come back and work in Greater Waterbury and in Waterbury specifically. But I think being able to have those partnerships in Connecticut, I think it's a win-win for all of us to be able to support the growth in Waterbury and to have our students come back and work. At my reception, one of our scholars said, it's not Waterbury maybe, it's Waterbury promise. We are making a commitment. And he promised the folks who joined us on that night that he's coming back to Waterbury. He wants to be a teacher. He wants our students to see himself and themselves and each other. So I think it's powerful to be able to have those partnerships. One, it creates financial stability, but it also benefits the colleges and universities to keep students here. Many, like myself, I went to college outside of Connecticut. I should have stayed in Connecticut. But I think keeping students here is important.

So what are some of the stipulations of the program? How is it made up in layman's terms? I'm a Waterbury High School student. I'm looking to go to a state-based college or university. Waterbury Promise comes into that situation, how?

We work closely with Waterbury Public Schools, the Director of College and Career Readiness, and the high school counselors. The criteria is to be a Waterbury resident, attend all four years of high school, whether it's a Waterbury public school, Kaynor Tech and or Holy Cross, have a 3.0 gpa, have a 90% attendance rate or better, fill out and complete the FAFSA and attend a two year or four year accredited college or university here in Connecticut. So you're eligible once you meet the criteria. We remind you to stay on track. So we're in schools, we're spreading the word, we're contacting them. We're working with the counselors once they complete the FAFSA. What schools are you thinking of going to? The counselors work directly with them this year. We wanna support the counselors in those decisions. We're having a FAFSA night at the end of the month. We wanna support families in completing the FAFSA, and we also wanna support families come January, February, and March with making those decisions to be able to say, what is the best financial aid package for my family? And we don't want scholars to go into debt, we wanna help coming in as a last dollar scholarship. And what that means is being able to look at all your financial aid awards, all grants and scholarships that come through, and then Waterbury Promise fills that gap that remains on your balance on your fee bill, which can sometimes hinder a student and family from being able to pursue college.

And the financial support that Waterbury Promise can award to a student is fairly significant. Can you talk about some of the financial levels of support?

Yes. So this graduating class of 2022 now in college is receiving $1,250 a year per student, per year of college. The class of 2023 will receive 2,500. The class of 2024 will receive 3,750, and then the class of 2025 will receive the $5,000 full scholarship from Waterbury Promise. So we are phasing our way to the full 5,000 and that's where the additional matching programs at the college or university is gonna be very important cuz you can be receiving $20,000 from us and$20,000 from the college or university that financially partners with us, which is powerful and can lessen student loan debt and lessen the financial burden and be able to come out with a degree and find a really great job and come back to the workforce in Waterbury.

You mentioned the Waterbury Promise scholarships being last dollar scholarships. Talk about how important it is from your perspective working with students directly and the gap that you see as it relates to not just the financial gap, but also the gap in understanding about what the opportunities are for them at the college level.

Yeah, so that gap is wide and working directly with students, they don't know how much money they may need to take out. That can be scarcity, when you see your fee bill and I owe a thousand dollars or more, where am I gonna come up with that money? Especially for a family that may have an expected family contribution of zero. And I think that's where we come in. It could be a thousand, it could be $5,000, it could be more. I'm seeing families taking out private loans. I'm seeing families exhaust their federal aid. I'm seeing families go and take out Parent Plus Loans. So I think the Waterbury Promise Scholarship is going to be able to close that gap, especially when we're gonna be giving out the 5,000 per year per student. So we will be heavily communicating with families saying, look, you don't need to take out additional funding because we're gonna actually provide that. And be able to create an emergency fund for additional needs. Sometimes as a family or student may need a laptop, they may need books. The books won't come onto your fee bill. So we are seeing students take out additional federal aid so that they can have money left over, and we wanna be able to provide all of that. I'm passionate about this work because I don't want families to have to exhaust federal aid, parent plus loans or private loans, but to be able to have a program that will support you financially throughout your college years, having up to $20,000 from Waterbury Promise, but then having the opportunity to go to a partner school that's gonna give you an additional $20,000 will definitely lessen and close that gap.

So how does, in a particular example it work with a high school student and their family? You mentioned working with the high school guidance counselors. Is Waterbury Promise in direct connection with the student and their family, or is it a collaborative effort where you're brought in to manage or attend parts of that conversation? How deeply involved, I guess is maybe a better way to phrase is Waterbury Promise in the thought process of a student and their family.

So, I love that you said collaborative because that's exactly what it is. And the partnership between Waterbury Public Schools, Kaynor Tech counselors, and Holy Cross counselors and principals as well, is it's a collaborative effort. We don't wanna add burden, we wanna lesson burden working with the school counselors, working with the families directly. I will say throughout the school year, the counselors are working directly with those families, but we wanna have that collaborative effort, for example, holding the FAFSA night counselors will be there, Waterbury Promise team will be there. We're gonna be there to answer questions. We wanna be in it. And as I mentioned before, being able to support counselors in working directly with families and saying, we wanna know what your financial aid package look like. How many schools did you apply to? We wanna be able to support families holistically. And that doesn't just stop once they graduate high school. We're building out a college success program. What does that look like? What types of wraparound services are you able to get on campus when you come home? There might be needs that you might not wanna talk to your family, or you might not wanna talk to the college counselors, but coming to Waterbury Promise to be able to say, I need this X, Y, and Z, and we'll be able to support you. We wanna build out a mentorship program, we wanna build a career pipeline. This is why having those corporate businesses and those partnerships are very important to us because we want to have our scholars come back to Waterbury and have a career and be a great citizen here in Waterbury. There's no reason why they should have to leave Waterbury or Connecticut to do so.

You mentioned being passionate, but it's clear that you are a passionate person about this. Where does the interest in helping students get sparked? How did your career take shape?

Education has always been important to me. My mom actually had me her freshman year of college, so she wasn't able to finish. So growing up it was, you're gonna go to college, you're gonna go to college in my ear, get those good grades, honor roll, so on and so forth. And I did just that. I didn't know what it looked like. My dad actually graduated from the University of New Haven. He wasn't fully present after he graduated. And to be able to fully understand and articulate what to expect in college, I didn't have that. I was like a deer in headlights going off to New York. As you can imagine, I started off as an architecture major and after three years I was like, okay, this isn't for me. I appreciate architecture, I love architecture. I'm a mid-century modern girl. Uh, but for me it was about educating, right? The piece of, if I didn't have someone in my corner, if I didn't have the skills to advocate, if I wasn't confident in myself, I probably would've dropped out and or transferred or what have you. Who knows? But I had someone in my corner say, Kelonda, you could do this. Kelonda, just do X, Y, and Z. Complete this. You're gonna be able to graduate. You won't lose all your credits. I thought it was the end of the world. So to have that person help guide me through, cuz I didn't wanna call home and say, I think I'm gonna stop going to school. My grandparents and my mom would've been so upset with. But I was able to finish in five years with a Bachelor of Science in Interdisciplinary Studies, and I did an internship in New York City and I decided I wanted to come back to Connecticut. I originally thought I would work and stay in New York. I ended up landing a job with Achievement First, which is a public charter school network, and I worked at Amistad Middle School for almost four years. And advocating for equal education and the whole charter movement really made me wanna work directly with youth. I started working in external relations, advocating on a local and state level. And then once I finished that achievement, first I said, let me actually start working one-on-one with students. And for me it was like, if you can help and guide a student, Even if it's one student at a time, I'm being impactful. And I didn't want students to make the same decisions that I felt forced to make. I was the girl who didn't have enough money, especially when I was dorming, having to pay $17,000. Where am I getting $17,000 from to get a education? And by that time it was by any means necessary. So I was the girl taking out the private loans. So I advocate and I'm passionate about that. You have to have someone in your corner. You have to have someone explaining things to you. You have to have that collaborative effort between your family, counselor, grandparent, the school. It takes a village, and I was so blessed to have a village with me throughout college, and I went back to school for a Master's in public administration, and I knew I wanted to lead a nonprofit. I was on a track for executive director, and what I will say is, the journey, when I reflect, there was always one person who believed in me and helped motivate me. It wasn't easy, but I know that it takes a journey and it also takes a village, and Waterbury Promise is giving that to students and we wanna be right there. So I'm passionate about this work because our youth are our future, they're future leaders and they need a community that believes in them, and Waterbury believes in our scholars and I'm just blessed to be here, blessed to share. It wasn't easy for me. You think there's a straight line? Life is not a straight line. I went into college thinking if I do everything this way or right, I'll be out at the end, but that was not the case. My lines went right, my line went left, and then I got back on a straight path and it was worth it. Cuz here I am right now with you. Grant: That's amazing. Prior to being on camera today, you mentioned that one of your favorite books is The Other Wes Moore. We were talking prior about Jim O'Rourke from the Greater Waterbury YMCA, and that is one of, if not his favorite book. What is so powerful about Wes' story? For me, hearing him speak, he's such a great speaker. And then for him to share the book and be able to read the book, there was two Wes Moores. They both had different trajectories. For me, as I reflect on it, which life are we choosing, you can be mistaken for the other Wes Moore. And for him to recognize the differences in the life he chose and the life of the other Wes Moore, I think was very powerful because in life we have choices. And when we make the choices that we make, it ultimately alters our journey. And I speak about journey a lot because you have to share your stories. And I was just so grateful that he shared his journey and his story and what that meant to him. It was just powerful for me and to be grateful and be confident in the choices that you make. And sometimes you will fall. I've fallen, especially taking out those private loans. But you get back up and you have people in your corner, and I just felt the story was powerful.

You touched on a couple spots in your journey to Waterbury and Waterbury Promise. You've been the executive director in New Haven at the Foote School, and you spent time in Bridgeport and New Haven and, and now Waterbury. I don't mean to compare other cities, but when you look at Waterbury, what distinguished itself about Waterbury that attracted you to the city?

Yeah. Yeah, so driving, I won't ever forget this. Driving up for my interview. And you're up in the hills and then all of a sudden you have this beautiful city. It was hidden. It's a hidden gem. Coming up, it's a beautiful ride. And just knowing that my journey wasn't over, I thought about New Haven and I said, I think it's time for me to leave New Haven. I think it's time for me to be impactful in another city. I think it's time for me to share the journey, share the story. For me it's 360. Now I'm able to give out scholarships to well deserving students. Waterbury students are well deserving and the resources are needed here, and that ultimately made the decision that this was so impactful and powerful. I couldn't let it down, and I had to reach forward for it, and I had to put in the hard work and just really excited to be here in Waterbury and to serve Waterbury students.

So as you look at the educational landscape of Waterbury, talk a little bit about the quality and the depth of education here.

Yeah, yeah. So Waterbury is very diverse and the team here at the Board of Ed and the teachers and the sense of community, and we talked about this earlier, you feel like you're getting wrapped around with a big hug and everyone's welcoming. That's what I felt coming here to Waterbury. Being in the schools, there's a sense of pride. There's a sense of, this is my high school, this is, we're the Bulldogs going to Crosby, going to Kennedy and Wilby, and just being in the schools, you can feel the sense of joy, the sense of compassion, the collaborative efforts to make sure that you know that college is possible. Board of Ed is making sure that you're getting ready for college and career and that you're fully supported. So it takes a village and that presence is definitely felt within the schools. And I'll add the public schools here, and also with Dr. Ruffin, her initiative to make sure that we're increasing graduation rates and that opportunity to know that your success can happen. You define your own success, but knowing that upon graduation you're gonna have a career lined up, you're gonna go into the workforce, you're gonna go into the trade. You can do an apprenticeship, you can go off to a two year or four year college. The partnerships that they have with early college, high school, with Post University, there's different programs. And to be able to have those resources and opportunities at your feet and in your hands, it's just powerful.

So Waterbury Promise seems to be a great partnership between the city of Waterbury and the Waterbury Board of Education. How has it been working with the municipality and the Board of Ed? This is a pretty ambitious concept, so despite it quote unquote, working in other cities, you were essentially starting from the ground up in Waterbury. How did that collaboration in those conversations come about and what was the tenor of them.

Yeah, so we are so grateful because we were able to work with Richard Sugarman, who's the president at Hartford Promise, and it's similar sister program and their last dollar as well. New Haven Promise is middle dollar, and they have great partnerships in New Haven, but we felt Hartford was a good model for us to begin here in Waterbury, and he was so informative in the early stages. Until this day, I can email him or call him and we meet and I'll bounce ideas off of him. So Richard Sugarman has been a blessing to Waterbury Promise, and to have a model already working because they are much older than us. To be able to look up to that, to be able to brainstorm and be thought partners and how best we can do that here in Waterbury. He's definitely been the go-to and has been so supportive in not only helping us launch, but making sure that we launch strong.

So at the end of the day, what makes Waterbury Promise so special in your mind?

Waterbury Promise is special because the community understands how important this is for our youth. We're not just talking to high schoolers right now, our middle school students, our students who are in grade school, just knowing that this opportunity is for you and the commitment from the city and the Board of Ed. We're in this office because of the city's commitment and the Board of Ed in-kind gifts towards us. So we are grateful and to have that commitment to be able to share that this can be an opportunity for you to stay on track, to work hard towards it. It's not that you have to apply and have an application. No, this can be readily available for you upon graduation. So knowing that college can be possible inspiring students to reach college and to go off and get a degree, you're gonna make so much more money with a college degree over time than you would without one. So being able to have that financial stability and being able to bring that back into Waterbury, I think is powerful. So Waterbury Promise is special because the community just wrapped their arms around this and has embraced it, and we wanna see it grow. It will grow, powerful.

So generally speaking and going back to some of your experiences prior to coming to Waterbury and including your time with Waterbury Promise, what have you seen in terms of high school students and their readiness for college?

Man, that's a good question. It varies. It varies. It depends on a, a lot of factors. I've seen single mom, I've seen two parent households. I've seen a single mom who's working three jobs, and the student just needs my help or a program's help like this to be able to get things done. But the need for just additional supports and resources outside of the educational sphere was really important. And being able to pick up the phone and have someone you trust to say, Hey, Kelonda, I'm really struggling with this. Is there any resource you can give me or is there any way you can help me? I think is just powerful to the relationships that we build in the nonprofit sector and, and just relationships in general. And I think that's important. We have a team here, Noelia, she works directly with our scholars while they're on campus to pick up the phone and say, I'm really struggling on campus, I'm having a hard time, every office I go to, I'm getting brushed off. What do I do? And being able to support that scholar is important. So having that opportunity to continue to build on the trust, and I think that's already relevant, that there's trust here.

That's so interesting because it seems like you've also thought through the aspect of persistence, not just getting the student from high school to college, but keeping them invested and finding all the ways big and small to support them through the two or four year experience.

And it can be tricky, especially if you don't know how to navigate. If you're first generation student, the first one, going off to college, being able to navigate the FAFSA, knowing that you have to complete it every year. You don't wanna lose your financial aid. Where do I go to if I need this resource on campus? Do I take the health insurance if I have my own health insurance? So there's tons of questions and things from financial aid to the academic counseling office. Have you talked to your professor? How are your grades? Just being able to check in. We're actually about to complete our mid-semester survey. We just wanna do a pulse check, right? How are you doing? We wanna see who's doing well and who may need a little bit of a hand, and I think it's important to know that if I need help, I know where to go. If I need a little nudge, Waterbury Promise will be reaching out to you. So it doesn't stop. It doesn't stop once you graduate high school. We want them to persist. We want them to have the resources, the wraparound services. We want professors and we want administrators to know that there's a Waterbury Promise Scholar on your campus, and we want them to have a sense of belonging. And I think that piece is important to being able to advocate for yourself, to feel comfortable reaching out to professors, that sense of belonging. We wanna make sure that students don't get lost. We wanna make sure they graduate. And then we also wanna make sure we support them with job shadowing, interviews, those soft skills, being able to have internships. We want them to come back to Waterbury. So supporting that narrative is going to be important. And we wanna make sure they have jobs. We want them to be productive. We want them to stay focused. We want them to stay on track and persist to graduation.

So let's get down to some brass tacks, pun intended. How would a student start the process? How do they connect with Waterbury Promise or apply for one of your scholarships?

So they're not gonna apply. What they're gonna do is become eligible. So if you meet all the criteria, you can be eligible for this scholarship. Make sure you hand in all your homework, and your exams. Make sure you have that 3.0. You are gonna work with your school counselor, and once we have the eligible list, they'll enroll into the program and we stay in contact with them. Follow us on social media. You can get information there as well, but you don't have to apply. You just need to stay eligible and stay on track. Once you graduate, you're automatically into the program. As long as you're attending a two year, four year Connecticut accredited college or university, you are eligible for this.

So if you could Kelonda, help us understand a quantified number in the first year of the program. How many students approximately are now utilizing the scholarship and attending a Connecticut college or university?

So within six months of launching and spreading the word and working in the schools, we have 192 scholars from the cohort of 2022, attending 13 Connecticut colleges and universities across the state. Very exciting. Very exciting. Very exciting. We have 73 scholars up at UConn, and half of them are at UConn Waterbury and half are at UConn Storrs. And this year we were able to have four scholars at Eastern Connecticut State University receiving that additional matching grant. So we are looking forward to increasing those numbers, increasing our partnerships, and increasing college access for Waterbury students.

So talk a little bit about, and this is forecasting, but the students who are now enrolled in a college or university or about to head into a college or university, four or five, six years from now, you're gonna start to see graduates and young professionals. What's your anticipation of those young adults, young professionals, who are now coming out of a Connecticut school because of Waterbury Promise and what they may end up doing in Waterbury?

We wanna build those partnerships. We want to be able to let scholars know they can build meaningful, powerful careers back here in Waterbury. We want them to be entrepreneurs. We want them to take on jobs here and to be able to come back to their own community and build that economic mobility and to be able to become powerful for the city of Waterbury. We are talking to scholars. We are sharing that information and they know how powerful it would be to come back to their community to work, live and enjoy life.

It's a loaded question, but as a net net, what are you hoping that Waterbury Promise achieves? What's the grand vision? What would that look like? What are you striving for as the biggest of your big goals?

That's a really great question. We want students to be successful. We want Waterbury students to define their success. We want them to persist through college. We want them to have what they need. We want them to graduate, and we want them to be successful in their careers, and we want them to come back to Waterbury.

So wrapping up on a personal level, how does the work that you do here in Waterbury make you feel?

I have chills. It makes me feel truly blessed. Truly blessed to know, I wanna cry, truly blessed to know that I have gone through the process. I have gone through the muck, I have gone through the tunnel where sometimes it felt dark and you didn't know which way to go, and you're just trying to get out to the light. I've gone through it and I just feel blessed to be able to give back in an impactful way, in a powerful way that is beyond me. It's really not about me. It's about our youth. It's about our scholars, it's about our students. It's about them being the best version of themselves and knowing that there's light. Even when you think there's darkness, there's light, and you can reach your dreams. I remember my grandma told me growing up, you're gonna be great. You could do anything that you set your mind to. And that has stayed with me on my journey. So, I want our scholars to know that they can be anything that they wanna be. They can reach their dreams, and we're right here to support them. I'm blessed to be here to do this work.

And we're happy that you're here in the city of Waterbury. Thank you so much for your time.

Thank you so much.

Listen to the full series from The Waterbury Talks, and learn more about Waterbury Promise, the high schools, colleges, and universities in Waterbury, and all the city offers, at thewaterbury.com