LeBron James has announced that the LeBron James Family Foundation will be partnering with the University of Akron (in his hometown of Akron, Ohio) to send students to college for free. Four-year scholarships will be awarded specifically to students of the college’s LeBron James Family Foundation’s “I Promise” mentoring program. “Every single kid who finish my program will go to college for FREE!” tweeted James August 14.
Mashable reports that eligibility rules are still being drafted by the foundation and the school, but would most likely include students’ grade-point average and attendance. Furthermore, JP Morgan Chase will be providing 4,000 man hours of technical assistance to the initiative to help find eligible students. The expected ages for recipients will include students graduating from high school from 2021 to 2029, which could total up to 2,300 students. Tuition per student currently costs around $9,500 USD per year including general fees, and for the next five years, the foundation and the university will be raising money to cover those costs.
LeBron stated in a news conference:
“College isn’t a realistic future for many, kids need to see a finish line… It means so much because, as a kid growing up in the inner city and a lot of African-American kids, you don’t really think past high school. You don’t really know your future. You hear high school all the time, and you graduate high school and then you never think past that because either it’s not possible or your family’s not financially stable to even be able to support a kid going to college.”