Scholarship City
How Fall River Is Creating American Dreams

In the hardscrabble industrial city of Fall River, Mass., where an optometrist named Irving Fradkin
quietly opened the nation’s first Dollars for Scholars chapter nearly half a century ago, some new
college access initiatives may also deserve national attention and replication.

Fall River has historically lagged the state and region in educational attainment and economic development. When the city’s towering textile industry fell, unemployment rates soared to 12 percent. During the economic miracle years of the 1980s, the city’s unemployment was roughly double the state average. Much of Fall River’s economic hardship could be traced to poor educational attainment. Indeed, fully half of southeastern Massachusetts residents age 25 and over had no high school diploma in 1980. Fradkin remembers when the high school dropout rate in Fall River
hovered around 45 percent. All that has changed. State data suggest the city’s dropout rate has decreased to 5 percent. And by December 2000, Fall River’s joblessness rate, though still higher than the state average, was 4.1 percent.

The city has provided fertile ground for a variety of economic development initiatives including special loan programs for city businesses. But some of the credit also goes to a series of education programs aimed at changing attitudes in the city. A sampling:

American Dream Challenge. Fradkin founded the American Dream Challenge in 1994 based on
the belief that students who have a dream as well as financial support will be more likely to stay in school and stay away from drugs. The challenge, launched as part of the Fall River Dollars for Scholars program, rewards students who maintain high academic standards and good school attendance records, perform public service and write an essay focused on how education can help them appreciate freedom and achieve the American Dream. In grade four, students compete for $100 awards toward college. They may reapply for additional grants in grades six, eight and 10, creating
the potential for a total scholarship worth $1,000. The scholarship funds are generated by private donations at no cost to Fall River.

The goal of the program, says the 80-year-old Fradkin, is to create a cascading effect whereby more students are inspired to reach their educational goals, school dropout rates decline, young people value good citizenship, and the city benefits from volunteer community services. Fradkin counts
on peer pressure to attract students who see their friends earning support and want to do the same.

Like Dollars for Scholars, Fradkin’s other initiatives employ fun ways to raise money and awareness.
A Pennies for Scholars program organized by Fradkin last year encouraged students ages 9 to 13 to empty their piggy banks for the American Dream Challenge. At one middle school, students raised $400 for scholarships— all in pennies.

Living Heroes. It’s no secret that children adopt role models from Hollywood and the world of sports.
Educators can clarify misconceptions of what a hero is by showcasing everyday people who make a difference in their communities. As Robert Lawrence, pastor of Fall River’s First Congregational Church, wrote in the Fall River Herald, “America needs real heroes—not just the ones we read
about in our daily newspapers, but also those who are behind the scenes and in a low-key, humble manner become a hero to some unknown child who has the potential for greatness.”

In 1997, Fradkin started the Living Heroes program featuring an annual ceremony in which fourth-graders who write winning essays meet adults who have made a difference in the city. Students take home biographies of the living heroes; the heroes take home essays by the students. The goal
is for students to see the heroes as role models and emulate them.

In addition, a Perpetual Scholarship program allows contributors to memorialize these heroes by
making $2,000 tax-deductible donations in their names toward fourth grade scholarships.

Unsung Heroes. With support from a bilingual literacy consultant named Odete Amarello, Fall River has also begun shining a light specifically on outstanding teachers and parents who are nominated by their principals or fellow teachers or chosen based on essays they write about why they love
teaching or how they have motivated students. Last year’s winning teachers were Denise Ward, now principal of the Frank M. Silvia School, Harvey Ussach of Bishop Connolly High School and Susan Lanyon of the Wylie School. The city plans to hold an annual event at the city’s Portuguese Cultural Center where the exemplary teachers will receive citations and the gratitude of about 400 local citizens. Ward will be the keynote speaker. Fradkin, meanwhile, tirelessly pitches the story of the
unsung heroes to local newspapers and radio stations as a way of highlighting the value of teaching.

Choices. Fradkin also has appeared at two or three local elementary and middle schools each week to talk to students in grades four through eight about the dangers of using drugs and making bad choices. In 1998, Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson, whose no-nonsense law enforcement has earned him both praise and criticism, began collaborating with Fradkin to urge youngsters to stay in school and to draw attention to how government investment in prisons could be redirected to support
schools and social programs. During one visit, Hodgson asked student volunteers to stand on a 7 x 10
foot block of paper for 10 minutes to experience what it’s like to be locked up. “Bad choices lead
to waking up at 7 every day, even on weekends, having no privacy, no walls, and not being able to call mom or dad,” warned the sheriff.

Fradkin and Hodgson have pitched their approach on choices to national law enforcement groups, and the American Dream Challenge model is being shared among Dollars for Scholars chapters across the nation. Fall River once supplied the nation with textiles. The city just might do the same with education access initiatives.

—John O. Harney