Rendell honors Mayor's Scholars

Mayor Ed Rendell, University President Judith Rodin and local dignitaries gathered at City Hall to honor the Mayor's Scholars from the Class of 2000 on Friday. The Scholar's program awards an average of $19,000 dollars, free of loan obligations, to Philadelphia students who have been admitted to the University. Prospective students must file a financial aide application before being considered for the scholarship. Mayor Rendell described the program as the "best type of scholarship program anywhere in the country." "The program is an on going partnership between a great university and a great city," Rodin said. The Mayor's Scholarship program is designed to make the University affordable to Philadelphians. It also attempts to increase the number of students from Philadelphia who attend Penn. "It profoundly changed my life," Rodin said, who attended the University on a Mayor's Scholarship. She noted that the scholarship program is one of the premiere programs in the country, costing approximately half a million dollars. Rodin invited the Mayor's Scholars to be "ambassadors" showing other students what Philadelphia has to offer. In 1995, the Mayor's Scholars program fell under controversy after the Public Interest Law Center had brought suit against the City Of Philadelphia and the University. The center contested that the program was not filling its obligations set forth in a 1977 agreement. A city ordinance requires the University to award a set number of scholarships to Philadelphia residents in exchange for rent-free land from the city. PILCOP sued the University in 1991, claiming the 1977 agreement provided for 125 scholarships to be awarded per year -- a total of 500 scholarship students attending the University. The University contended the total should be set at 125. Yet the Commonwealth Court ruled in favor of the University and the City, sustaining that the University is only obligated to distribute 125 scholarships over the course of four years. In June 1995, a seven-judge panel ruled in favor of the University and the City of Philadelphia in the long-standing Mayor's Scholarship lawsuit. This year's scholarship winners were presented with certificates at a reception held Friday. Several students said without the program they never would have been able to afford Penn. College and Wharton freshman Natalie Cotton said the program has "helped take my mind off the financial worries [of college]." "Our family would not have been able to afford [Penn] had she not gotten the scholarship," said the mother of Nursing freshman Madelyn Maldonado. During closing remarks, community leader Happy Fernandez stated "education is the most important opportunity to all of us." Fernandez also encouraged the Mayor's scholars to "find ways to give back to the community." Rodin said one of the goals of this program is to produce students, who over the next four years, will thrive from an intellectually and socially stimulating experience at Penn and eventually give back to the community.