SALISBURY, Md. — A state border was standing between some Delmar High School students and a college scholarship. A new Maryland law just changed that.
Students and officials gathered at Wor-Wic Community College on Wednesday to celebrate the newly signed legislation.
The law, signed last week, extends eligibility for the Maryland Community College Promise Scholarship to Maryland residents who graduate from Delmar High School. The school itself sits across the border in Delaware — a quirk that had previously made its Maryland graduates ineligible for the scholarship.
Officials at Wor-Wic Community College say the scholarship essentially allows students to attend the school for free — and that, according to Wor-Wic President Deb Casey, can be the deciding factor for a family.
"This covers the cost of them being able to enroll with us," Casey said. "And so it is a big, significant role in a family's determination as to whether a student chooses to go to college or not."
Casey says the data backs that up.
"If you look at the data around students who have College Promise versus those that don't, we see students take more full-time student status, coursework, and we also see greater success than students who do not have College Promise," she said.
The law comes after students advocated directly for the change. Jackson Luffman, a junior at Delmar High School, testified in support of the proposal before lawmakers.
"Now that this bill is passed, it's incredibly affordable for not just myself, but all the other students like me at Delmar to attend community colleges like Wor-Wic," Luffman said. "If we want to go into a trade or get an associate's degree or take some classes before we go to university, it's going to just make that next step a little bit easier for us all."
School officials confirmed that 21 students from this year's graduating class at Delmar will be able to take advantage of the scholarship.
