The University of Kentucky text as a link to the UK homepage.
The Robinson Scholars text as a link to the Robinson Scholars homepage.

(Epperson Student 1)

I have totally been prepped for exactly what college life is going to be about. I’ve had ACT preps, I’ve actually gone on campus and I’ve met Professors and a lot of my classmates have never even been to the college that they’ve wanted to go to; they’ve never been really prepped or inspired to actually go to college and I think that’s really been a big thing with the program with me.

(Epperson Parent 1)

After all, every year that you go on the campus you meet the people that are over it and they’re just they’re precious people everybody that’s over it. I know that when I send my child away that she’s happy and safe and she’ll come back fine. And that meant so much to me I mean like right now I don’t think anything of sending her you know with the people there because I know they love her and they care about her and they look after her and that means just a huge amount. And so now I mean I know that she knows a little bit like the last time when we went to UK she said here mom lets turn this way lets go that way she knew sort of the way to go and I was going okay you know it makes you feel better that you know she’s a little bit prepared.

(Epperson Parent 2)

I think it’s a dream you know a dream that a child can have and you know to do whatever they choose to do. You know it’s just something they don’t have to just settle for this or settle for that they can actually say hey this is what I want to do and I can do it so.

It’s just a special program for special people.
Yeah.
And they’ve been blessed. It’s just a special program. It totally prepares them for college. It takes a huge burden off the family. I mean it’s hard to put it into just a few words we could sit and give you…
All sorts…
All sorts of positive responses on it but it’s just a very special program for special young people out of Eastern Kentucky.

(Flores 1)

Graduation was awesome. Just to know that I had accomplished four years of learning, going to class, getting up early, trying to stay awake in class, take tests, things like that; just to know that all that had finally come to an end and I had finally accomplished something by receiving a diploma and knowing that my career choice was the right choice for me was just a feeling that you know you really can’t describe because it’s almost a feeling of completeness and that you’ve really accomplished something great.

(Heitzman 1)

We had I believe till my Junior and Senior year I had a writing workshop and it changed everything because writing was not my biggest skill to begin with and now it is like I can it’s my strongest skill so I love it when I’m in class and we get to write a paper instead of do a test cuz I generally make A’s on my papers.

(Heitzman 2)

What helped most were the workshops that we had before college even started because I mean UK is a pretty intimidating campus and had I not had the Robinson Scholar Program summer activities that we did, I don’t know like oh man I’m lost I don’t know what’s going on because that’s how most freshman at UK are and I saw I had that advantage over them and I believe that helped me out a lot too.

(Heitzman 3)

The staff of the Robinson Scholar Program including their location, pretty much the center of campus, stuff like that made my experience at UK very accessible, and very I mean just rewarding. Had I not had people there to push me to do better than what I was, I would not be here right now. And the fact that the office is on campus gave me a chance to just go to the office talk to people when I needed to talk to people when I was away from home and I didn’t really have anyone I could talk to.

(Holiday 1)

Having the Robinson Scholars office here on campus definitely makes a big difference in especially when you’re first starting like your comfort level so I mean if I was if I had a question about anything I could just walk into the Robinson Scholars office and there would be somebody there that would be able to talk to me and answer my questions and so I think that made a huge difference because I didn’t feel alone. I didn’t come to University of Kentucky with a lot of friends just because a lot of people from Lee County don’t come to college at UK and so I think it made a big difference to come to UK and have a place where I could go and ask questions and just sit down and chat about something that I was thinking about.

(Holiday 2)

I was interested in Science anyway but the experience the summer experience I had directly after I got the scholarship was kind of a career exploration type experience and it was for the medical field and we went to a gross anatomy lab and we got to explore kind of human anatomy and things like that and I got to hold a heart in my hand and at that time it just kind of a light bulb kind of went off in my head and I said this is what I want to do. It wasn’t necessarily I want to be a doctor but it was definitely I want to go into medicine and I want to make a difference.

(Holiday 3)

They way the Robinson Scholars kind of breeds successful individuals is the most important thing that they can do out of a small town because we’re the kind of people that need to go back to our small towns and really give back all the things, all the skills and knowledge that we’ve gained while we were in college. I mean we’ve became successful individuals and now we can go back to our hometowns that are under-served and are under-privileged and really use those wonderful gifts that we have been given to make it a better place.

(LeMaster 1)

The most my family ever traveled really was to Eastern Tennessee to Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg and that was about the extent of it. So I always knew I wanted to do more traveling and when I came to college and I remember doing the advising conference hearing about studying abroad and I wanted I wanted to do that I wanted to do something I didn’t know where I wanted to go or anything like that, but I remember going to the study abroad office my freshman year having no clue what I wanted to do or where I wanted to go and I had just started taking Spanish classes and so they you know told me to come back a little later just keep thinking about and as time went on I enjoyed the Spanish more and more and I thought you know that’s when I figured I would go to Spain. And then within that I just started looking at programs and found one that fit me and the scholarship was wonderful because it really helped me to be able to go because they took the funding that they would give me in a semester normally that went towards that program so they paid for my program fully and all I really had to come up with was spending money.

(LeMaster 2)

The Robinson Scholars Program does attack the the evils in Eastern Kentucky I guess you could say. The needs that are that are found there and education is one of those needs one of those sort of dark shadows that linger over the area just because not everyone finishes high school and therefore the people that do finish high school of them not a lot of them go to college and so while it isn’t necessary to live with a college degree or to have a college degree it is important that we have a large number of people who are have a large number of people who are finishing school, who are getting a good education, who can go back and who can develop the schools there, who can develop the communities there, who can spread their understanding of what it means to be successful in communities and to have a successful community, to have a thriving community, instead of you know a poverty-stricken community. To be able to help the people that live there who can’t help themselves who you know don’t have any opportunities and so to be given that opportunity to go back and start from the ground up is really wonderful I think that it’s essential that education be the place that people focus on when trying to develop a region and by educating the small number that we educate each year through the Robinson Scholars Program it helps you know every person makes a difference one person can make a difference and so to have all these people you know from this region who care about their region who love their homes and want to help their homes and then go back with what they’ve gained here is it’s essential its vital.

(LeMaster 3)

The preparation that the scholarship put into me going to college is nothing compared to the preparation they’ve put into me going into the world. Like I said, they have really helped me develop those skills that I need to be a successful member of society. They’ve really helped me to be able to think critically on my own, to be able to make my own opinions, to see my culture and my world and other cultures in a different light, to grown beyond simple-mindedness or to grow beyond a one track thought. They’ve really fostered and nurtured and pushed for growth and development and learning as a person and not just as a student. They’ve always reiterated the fact that learning is not just in the classroom.

(S. Holiday Parent 1)

Robinson Scholars also gave her some good tools through those summer camps and through meetings with the regional coordinator and things that would come to the high school would give her you know tips of of how you know to study and and things to do better to focus on you know where she needed to be and where she needed to go. Like I said, Victoria’s always been that way, she’s always been kind of a focused child but they did give her some very good pointers on this is how college life is going to differ from the way high school life is.

(S. Holiday Parent 2)

She starts medical school in the fall, so we’re very very excited and I think Robinson Scholars helped her get there I mean they gave her a lot of a lot of contacts you know with the PEPP she goes she went to PEPP and PEPP two that’s UK sponsored and I think she learned about that through Robinson Scholars a little bit I mean there’s just a lot a lot of good help that Robinson Scholars had given her over the years to help her to get where she needed to be to be the kind of person that could apply to medical school and get in.

(S. Holiday Parent 3)

Especially when they go off to college you kind of feel like parents get left out of the loop and anytime I need to know anything or or want to know anything all I have to do is pick up the phone and call and I can talk to Katy or Brad or any of the staff there and find out you know if something’s going on like Victoria’s doing this you know and it was on the radio and I had heard about it from somebody and they sent me the audio of it and I mean the staff at Robinson Scholar are so supportive not just to the students but to the parents and they help you in anything that you need anytime that you need anything you can just pick up the phone and call them and say you know is everything going okay.

(S. Holiday parent 4)

Well I think it would be a terrible terrible shame if that happened. I think that there is so much talent in so many children who have so much potential in Eastern Kentucky that it would be such a shame that if these children who maybe didn’t have everything that they needed in life or you know to be able to get to college a way that it would be a shame if there wasn’t a program like Robinson Scholar that nurtures them from the time that they are in the eighth grade all the way through high school because those are such difficult years for children growing up and you know you can win or lose a child in that particular time in their life and I think to get a child through that and then on into college and then be away from home where there are so many other things you know going on and to keep them focused I mean we would lose a lot of kids in Eastern Kentucky if it weren’t for a program like Robinson Scholars.

(S. Holiday Parent 5)

When we went to they did things you know about college life and you know we would have little meetings they’d take the scholars off in one room and keep the parents in another room and talk about how you know our lives were going to change when our children went away from home and we wouldn’t get to see them every day and those were the times you cried and they helped us with financial aid and filling out financial aid forms you know somebody you know I went to college but my mom didn’t you know I went for that first year and my mom filled out all those papers I wasn’t good at that I wasn’t good at filling those kinds of things out and they helped us learn how to do that and that that’s a big step you know learning how to fill out financial aid papers and doing all the things you need to do just to get your child into school.

(S. Holiday Parent 6)

Everybody’s just so nice and so helpful and those are the kinds of people that you don’t forget that you’ll always remember they genially care about my child and you know that’s the kind of people you want in your life and so I think the staff is definitely what I’ll remember most about the Robinson Scholars.

(Saylor 1)

The Robinson Program has given me opportunities that I otherwise would not have had and it has made my dreams come true in many ways that that I don’t see would have been possible without it and it’s basically as an eighth grader it said you know here’s the world, take it by the tail and whatever you want to do with it you can do.

(Saylor 2)

If the program’s not there those are opportunities that’s going down the drain. Those are people’s lives that are going to be affected because not only are the affecting the lives of the scholars and their families and their futures and their future families their affecting the entire community because I’m going to be a physician but I’m going back home to be a physician and who knows who people that I might help or who other scholars might help and by sending us by bringing us out educating us and sending us back in it is making our community a whole lot more than what it might’ve been before and it seems like it’s doing not only doing an injustice to take the program away would not only be an injustice to us but to Appalachia.

(Wilson 1)

It prepared me as far as education wise but when I actually got to college it’s like continuing to help me because I have all of my Robinson Scholar friends down here that are my age and that are going through a lot of the same stuff as me and are from the same background and then I have the older Robinson Scholars to help me like mentors and then the faculty and the program give me advice and I can come to you all whenever I need help for anything and then they give us ideas of how to be involved and they just make sure that we’re on track and if we need help they’re there so.

(Wilson 2)

I really like being in the class with all of my other Robinson Scholars the people that were went through the program with me because it helps just to meet twice a week with people that you’re good friends with and see what they’re doing and what you’re doing. The class we do different things we like we talked about financial things the other day and we’re doing a budget activity right now where I’m having to budget my money and I think that’s going to be interesting to make sure that I’m not spending my money away on nothing while I’m in college and then we do time management and we talk about the different programs that are offered on campus that relates to careers or just campus organizations so that we can be involved.

WATER PIONEERS

SUPER: WATER PIONEERS

JABEZ, KY.

STUDENTS THAT MAKE UP THIS ROBINSON SCHOLARS CLASS RECEIVED AN EDUCATION THEY COULDN’T HAVE IMAGINED AT WATER PIONEERS. THEY HAD THE CHANCE TO SEE WHAT CREATURES LIVE IN THIS SPRING BY TAKING A NET AND SKIMMING THE SURFACE. NEVER MIND THAT THEY DID THIS IN THE POURING RAIN BECAUSE THEIR DISCOVERIES OUTWEIGHED GETTING A LITTLE WET.

SUPER: BLAKE NEWTON

UK EXTENSION ENTOMOLOGIST

“You can’t help it when you are an entomologist, or any kind of biologist, when you see an animal you get excited. When I pull those creatures out of the water in a net, I never quite know what we are going to get, and the students definitely don’t know what we are going to get. It’s always very exciting for me and the students get excited as well.”

THAT WAS THE CASE FOR AMY EVANS, A ROBINSON SCHOLAR FROM WHITLEY COUNTY.

SUPER: AMY EVANS

ROBINSON SCHOLAR

“It’s a great experience and really interesting and we have learned a lot of things. Maybe I will want a career in this some day.”

SUPER: ZACH NEACE

ROBINSON SCHOLAR

“It’s a learning experience plus it helps me get ready for college and anything I do in high school, it’s a great opportunity for me.”

THE 29 ROBINSON SCHOLARS CAME TO WATER PIONEERS FOR A WEEK AT THE KENTUCKY LEADERSHIP CENTER NEAR LAKE CUMBERLAND. THEY WERE BEING CHALLENGED TO THINK ABOUT HOW TO DEAL WITH WATER ISSUES THAT HAVE PLAGUED THEIR HOME COUNTIES.

SUPER: DOUG MCLAREN

UK FORESTRY SPECIALIST

“Everybody needs water, and everybody depends on it on a daily basis and so we put together this program, so the students could have a focus, and we mixed in a lot of other natural resource issues

SUPER: MEGAN ROACH

ROBINSON SCHOLAR

“It helps you keep an open mind, because you are going to have to keep an open mind through college. It helps you look at things in a different perspective. There’s a lot of pollution and it can be prevented very easily, if you just take the time to stop and think about it.”

AT THE END OF THE WEEK EACH STUDENT WAS TO DESIGN A PLAN TO PRESENT TO LEADERS IN THEIR COUNTY CONCERNING WATER ISSUES. WATER PIONEERS IS ONE OF UK PRESIDENT LEE TODD’S COMMONWEATLH COLLABORATIVES. A VISION FOR TURNING UK'S RESEARCH RESOURCES TOWARD ADDRESSING AND SOLVING PROBLEMS HOLDING BACK THE STATE'S ECONOMIC AND CULTURAL PROGRESS. WATER PIONEERS INVOLVED THE KENTUCKY WATER RESOURCES RESEARCH INSTITUTE AND UK’S COOPERATIVE EXTENSION SERVICE.

SUPER: STEPHANIE JENKINS

KY WATER RESOURCES RESEARCH INSTITUTE

“It was the perfect fit, they didn’t have any science, water or environmental-type programs. So we were able to fill that niche for them – maybe some science-related careers and also give them some stewardship skills and abilities for the students.”

Robinson Scholars Summer Workshop Program

During the summer before their Junior and Senior years of high school, Robinson Scholars participate in a Writers’ Workshop on the campus of the University of Kentucky. Throughout the week-long program, Scholars have the opportunity to work with college faculty and guest authors to produce both an argumentative essay like those required in freshmen composition courses and a creative piece. During the 2007 Workshop, the Robinson Scholars Program was delighted to have poets Frank X Walker and Nikky Finney, both Kentucky natives, spend time working with the Scholars on their poems and short fiction. The students really appreciate the opportunity to work so closely with acclaimed writers, and doing so has proven to demystify the writing process for many of them.

The workshop’s location also exposes students to the university’s campus and the city of Lexington. The Robinson Scholars Program staff plans many activities that help Scholars become acclimated to the area, including a campus scavenger hunt and a trip to cheer on the Lexington Legends at Applebee’s Park. The Workshop also provides staff with the opportunity to address college transition issues in both formal and informal settings, which helps to ease anxiety about the Scholars next step in their academic careers—beginning college!

(Girl Student 1, begins at approximately 1:30)

First we learned about essay writing which is something that you have to do a lot in college. The argumentative essay and then we did creative writing workshops where we learned so much about how to incorporate personal and public memory and how to use imagery really good in our writing to make the reader be able to see what we’re thinking. Last year was my junior year doing the writing workshop and I went back to school and I knew how to do essays; I could do an essay in my sleep.

(Boy Student 2)

The summer program is a great program to introduce us to writing, to the essay part to the creative part of writing, the academic to the the typing in to your inner emotions. It’s a great way to develop your sense of knowledge your sense of reality around you.

(Frank X)

I think a poem fails if it doesn’t invite you in and the opportunity to communicate. You know I think that if I say this thing and you don’t get it then I wasted my time.

(Boy Student 2)

We have fun and we learn and we grow together as a family Robinson Scholars and as future UK students. And I think I’m just very privileged and very thankful for this opportunity.

(Girl Student 1)

I recommended to any middle schooler that’s about to go into the eighth grade, if they live in one of the twenty-nine counties that the Robinson Scholars reaches out to, that they apply to get the Robinson Scholarship, cuz it’s a full ride to the University of Kentucky.