Willard Hackerman, president and CEO of Baltimore-based construction company Whiting-Turner Contracting, has donated $5 million to establish a full scholarship for Baltimore Polytechnic Institute ("Poly") students accepted into the Whiting School of Engineering.
The Hackerman Polytechnic Scholarship falls under the umbrella of the Baltimore Scholars Program, which grants full tuition for four years to any Hopkins student admitted from a Baltimore City public high school.
While Hackerman Polytechnic Scholars must attend the Whiting School, the Baltimore Scholars may attend either the Whiting School or the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences.
Ellen Frishberg, Director of Financial Aid, explained this shift in policy, saying, "It was hard to encourage students to stay here. When you go away to college, you want to go away."
Frishberg hopes that the incentive of full-tuition coverage for four years will keep more exceptional students in Baltimore.
Poly principal Barney Wilson remarked that Hackerman's scholarship "provides hope, not only for the individual students, but for the whole community that they're coming from."
Frishberg hopes that the scholarships show Baltimore City public schools that Hopkins "believes public schools' students are just as qualified" to gain admission as students from other regions.
Minority enrollment is expected to increase with the Hackerman Polytechnic Scholarship and the Baltimore Scholars Program.
John Latting, director of admissions at Hopkins, said that about 90 percent of Baltimore City public school students are African-American.
So far, Latting said, "The applications we've received reflect that number."
The number of applicants from the Baltimore City public school system has tripled this year as a result of the Hackerman Polytechnic Scholarship and the Baltimore Scholarship Program, according to Latting.
Wilson added that Poly experienced a "tremendous increase," in Hopkins applicants, rising from last year's four to this year's fifty-one students applying for admission.
The majority of Hopkins applicants from Baltimore City public schools attend citywide schools, public schools with a particular focus that require students to meet certain eligibility standards.
These citywide schools include Poly, the Baltimore City College High School, and the Baltimore School for the Arts.
This year, Latting said, "Three-quarters of the Baltimore City applications are from [citywide] schools."
He added that "there has not been as big an increase in applications from neighborhood schools," which do not set eligibility standards.
One of the changes Frishberg expects to take place as a result of the increased financial aid now offered to public school students from Baltimore City is "a geographical shift."
While the current majority of Hopkins applicants are residents of California, the number of Maryland applicants is expected to increase.
The University has a history of educating Poly graduates in the School of Engineering.
While not all Poly graduates plan to attend engineering schools, Wilson explained, "Because we're an engineering and science and math school, probably at least 60 percent [of students] will be for engineering."
Nicholas Jones, dean of the Whiting School, added, "Many of our graduates of Engineering are not only from Baltimore but also from [Poly]. This scholarship more clearly establishes those ties."
While the admissions office has not placed an upper limit on the number of scholarships given through these programs, Jones warned that "we always have to keep an eye on the size of the commitment and have to make sure that we don't lose our commitment to other students coming from other areas."
A Hopkins alum, Hackerman graduated from the Poly in 1935, and from the Whiting School in 1938. He has been a major contributor to the Whiting School, as well as to other parts of the University.
Jones said that Hackerman's "generosity to Johns Hopkins and to the School of Engineering and to the Baltimore Polytechnic Institute is a tremendous commitment on his part."
Wilson agreed, saying, "I think he stands out as a role model for all graduates as a tribute to what we can do for our alma maters."
