Bright Futures is a multi-year program meant to support Park City High School’s first-generation students. It helps them graduate high school, prepare for college and support them through post-secondary education.
The program has existed for over a decade. It originally focused on a small group of students with high aspirations who self-selected to join the program.
That’s changed this year. The Park City Education Foundation has expanded the program. Now, every first-generation student at Park City High can opt in during registration. About 210 students are participating in the program this year.
With the help of foundation funds, the high school hired a new counselor who is solely focused on supporting those students. Pepper Elliot, who worked in the district for 10 years as a scholarship advisor, holds the new position.
“I'm there full time to help support our first-generation students,” she said on KPCW’s “Local News Hour” Sept. 16. “I get to meet with each student one-on-one to plan out, you know, future plans that match their goals and their strengths for college or career trade school, whatever it is that they're interested in doing.”
Elliot is hosting weekly meetings with first-generation students to discuss college and career options as well as financial aid. She also plans to take the students on field trips to Utah universities, including Utah State, Utah Valley and the University of Utah.
Education foundation President Ingrid Whitley said the program will still continue past high school as well.
“We still have our college program manager, Valeria [Sandoval], on our team, supporting all the students who are currently in post-secondary,” she said.
That includes one-on-one coaching, financial aid and scholarship information, as well as emergency assistance when needed. Whitley said the foundation is considering how to expand post-secondary support to accommodate increased program participation.
But the jump in Bright Futures participation has raised concerns among some of its founders.
In a Jan. 14 letter to the foundation’s board, nine founding sponsors wrote that while the foundation’s changes are admirable, they are not the mission of Bright Futures. They said the additional students will weaken the program’s ability to help college-bound students succeed.
Whitley has said the changes grew out of a strategic planning process undertaken by the staff and board that considered the foundation's work over the past six years.
