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Mills College has joined forces with the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) Office of Equity, the City of Oakland, and the East Bay College Fund to remove barriers and provide access to a top-ranked college education for girls.

In 2016, Mills signed the Oakland Promise College Pathway Partnership along with 11 other Northern California colleges and universities to make higher education an attainable goal for every Oakland student.

Now, as part of the Mills-Oakland Promise Program, Mills has created special initiatives to support OUSD high school girls and young women as they transition to college and during their journey at Mills, including:

•     the Mills-Oakland Promise summer bridge program that helps students get ready for college;
•     an academic success team that assists students in navigating college and pursuing their dreams;
•     individual ePortfolio websites to showcase each student's learning;
•     a personal research or creative project mentored by outstanding faculty; and
•     career services including career coaching, Mills alumnae mentoring, and visits to local companies and organizations.

Mills will also provide a minimum financial aid scholarship of $7,000 to every OUSD high school student (public and charter) admitted in fall 2018 with a minimum high school GPA of 3.2. Higher scholarship amounts may be offered to admitted students with higher GPAs.

Students who receive the $7,000 Mills scholarship, an East Bay College Fund scholarship, and the maximum Pell and Cal Grant awards will have earned enough aid to completely cover the cost of their tuition and fees at Mills. These Mills-Oakland Promise students will be able to attend Mills free of tuition and required fees (subject to continued East Bay College Fund, Pell, and Cal grant eligibility).

In addition to these awards, the College will debut 10 new Mills-Oakland Promise Scholarships, which are made possible by OUSD’s Office of Equity and the generous support of Mills alumnae and trustees. These awards include:

•     The African American Female Excellence Scholarship
•     The Latina Excellence Scholarship
•     Eight additional Mills-Oakland Promise scholarships

“We are committed to making a Mills education accessible to more students than ever before," said Mills College President Elizabeth L. Hillman. “Most recently, we reduced tuition by 36 percent and have forged new pathways, partnerships, and resources to help make a transformative college education both accessible and affordable.”

On Saturday, February 10, 2018, Mills will host—Explore College: Mills Preview and Admission Day, a special event providing an inside view of what Mills College has to offer. Qualified OUSD students who submit their application materials ahead of the Mills College Preview and Admission Day will receive an instant admission decision for fall 2018 and potentially receive a Mills-Oakland Promise Scholarship that same day!

About Mills
Located in Oakland, California, in the heart of the San Francisco Bay Area, Mills College is a nationally renowned independent liberal arts college for women with graduate programs for women and men. Ranked one of the top-tier regional universities in the West by U.S. News & World Report, Mills is also recognized as one of The Best 382 Colleges in the nation by The Princeton Review. Since 1852, we’ve been empowering students to become creative, independent thinkers who take and inspire action. For more information, visit http://www.mills.edu.

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