Access to higher education and the ability to pay for tuition are two of the biggest factors that determine whether a high school student will earn a college degree. This is the reason that Erie Insurance and Penn State Behrend created Excelerate.
Excelerate students receive a scholarship to participate in Pathway to Success: Summer Start, a six-week program that offers select first-year Behrend students tools and resources that increase the likelihood that they not only will earn a Penn State degree, but also will do so in four years or fewer, potentially saving their families thousands of dollars in tuition and fees. Later in their Behrend studies, these students are given first preference for special internship and research stipends.