Recently, Northern Kentucky University officials announced the school received a $25,000 grant to help prepare local students for collegiate courses.
The thought among the state's school systems is that college freshmen are subjected to many pressures and their work can often worsen as a result. The new funds allocated to NKU will help local high school students improve their writing skills in order to further prepare them for collegiate courses.
According to NKU professor Nancy Kersell, this extra attention and preparation can go a long way in shaping a student's academic collegiate career.
“I taught high school English many years ago, and also worked in business," said Kersell. "These experiences - and having taught composition at NKU since 1986 - have shown me that many high school students don’t realize how much employers and institutions of higher learning value the skills of writing clearly and correctly."
While NKU's grants will focus solely on writing, other educational institutions have used new funds to upgrade technology, adopting smartboards, high-tech computers and HDMI projectors into their classrooms.
The state of Kentucky recently received a grant from the U.S. Department of Education to improve its low-achieving school systems, which ranks among the worst in the country.
