SMART program - Smart Program

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The SMART Program:

San Mateo Rotary SMART Program Overview

1) Name: SMART Program: San Mateo Academic Rotary Team

2) Purpose: Encourage promising San Mateo 8^th graders, not likely to be college bound, to prepare for college while in San Mateo high schools and then enroll in a 2 Year or 4 Year College.

3) Selection Process: San Mateo 8^th grade students apply. Rotarians screen applicants. Interview teams score students based on potential, motivation and need. About 30 New SMART Students are selected annually from interviews, needs assessment and input from schools.

4) Rotary SMART Coaches: San Mateo Rotarian volunteers are assigned to coaching teams at each of the program’s partner high schools. They help a student set Annual Academic, Personal and Extra Curricular Goals in high school and follow-up to see if goals are met. SMART Coaches approve yearly $100 increases in SMART Student accounts.

5) Funding: San Mateo Rotary funds a $500 grant for each SMART 8th grader. Rotary SMART Coaching Teams verify that a student's annual goals are met and authorize addition of $100 to the student's account at Borel Bank.  Students get monthly statements and can watch their account grow to nearly $1,000 for college. Rotary funds about $25,000 annually for SMART. All administration and coaching is by volunteer Rotarians.

6) Disbursement: Students submit a form (available on website) to San Mateo Rotary along with verification they enrolled in college. Borel Bank then mails the money to the student.

  SMART Application

  SMART Fund Release Form

  SMART Goal Sheet

SMART College Funding Statistics

The current SMART program began in 1991 as the Rotary College Incentive Program.  The change to the SMART program occurred in 2006.  At that time the Program committed to more accurate record keeping as well as support for 30 students per year.  For this reason the following statistics will be divided into two groupings:  1) general data for 1991 – 2009, and 2) more specific data for 2002 – 2009.

1991 – 2009:

Total students:  564

Total funds committed by the Rotary Club of San Mateo @ $900/student:  $507,600(not all students earned or collected their potential award of $900)

2002 – 2009:  (note:  These students began to enroll in college in 2006.)

            2002 – 2006              41 students                39 enrolled in college

            2003 – 2007              36 students                31 enrolled in college

            2004 – 2008              37 students                32 enrolled in college

            2005 – 2009              28 students                7   enrolled in college to date --

                                                                                    submitted fund release form

            2006 – 2010              30 students

            2007 – 2011              30 students

            2008 – 2012              31 students                (one student privately funded)

            2009 – 2013              24 students                (reduction due to Club’s budget

                                                                                     restraints)

Colleges Attended 2006 - 2009:  Allegheny College, Benedict College, Berklee College of Music, Boston University, Cal Poly Pomona, Cal Poly SLO (2), Canada CC (2), Chabot CC, City College SF (2), College of San Mateo (16), CSU Chico, CSU East Bay (3), CSU Long Beach (2), CSU Monterey, CSU Sacramento, Dominican University, Foothill CC, Fresno State University, Gonzaga University, Bharati Vidyapeeth Deemed University - India, Marymount College, Montgomery College, Notre Dame de Namur, Northern Arizona University, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, Sacramento State University (2), San Diego State University (2), San Jose State University (4), Santa Barbara CC, Santa Clara University (2), San Francisco State University (7), Skyline CC, Sonoma State University, Stanford University (2), UC Berkeley (14), UC Davis (10), UC Merced, UC San Diego (4), UC Santa Barbara (2), UC Santa Cruz (3), UCLA (2), University of Alabama, University of Arizona, University of Oklahoma, USF, Yale University