For academically promising students who dream of going to college, the Rutgers Future Scholars Program provides a new kind of support system. Starting this summer, a select group of students entering eighth grade from Rutgers’ home communities of Camden, Newark, New Brunswick, and Piscataway will take part in academic enrichment activities on Rutgers campuses. Highly recommended by their teachers and school administrators, Future Scholars exhibit academic potential as well as financial need.

The multiyear program—with residential experiences in the summers, weekend seminars throughout the school year for students and their parents, and college admissions test preparation—will provide opportunities for educational growth and enrichment and expose the students to career paths they may not have thought were available to them.

The goal of the program is to help these students graduate from high school and gain admission to Rutgers or another college of their choice. To ease the financial burden of higher education, Rutgers promises to cover four years of tuition and fees for Future Scholars who meet admission requirements and choose to attend the university. They will be first-generation college students, a population that Rutgers has a long history of serving.

Each year, up to 200 additional eighth graders from Camden, Newark, New Brunswick, and Piscataway will join this first class of Future Scholars as they make strides toward brighter futures.