Today's Students, Tomorrow's Teachers Awarded
$10,000 Grant From MasterCard International

Funds to be Used to Help Recruit and Enroll 75-100 New Minority High School Students Annually into TSTT, providing Career Development, Mentoring and Internships to Enable TSTT Students to Explore Teaching as a Profession

From left to right: Cheryl Tompson, Employee, Grant Review Team Member, MasterCard International, Diana McSweeney, Vice President, Global Communications, MasterCard International, and Dr. Bettye Perkins, Executive Director, TSTT.

Elmsford, New York, November 15, 2004 - Today's Students, Tomorrow's Teachers today announced that is has been awarded $10,000 from MasterCard International. TSTT expects to recruit, enroll, and train 100 new minority and economically disadvantaged high school students with the funds. This school year, TSTT will provide these students with career development, mentoring, college admissions, financial aid workshops, and internships to enable them to explore teaching as a profession. The award is part of the MasterCard Youth Education and Technology Fund, a targeted corporate grant-making program designed to support eligible nonprofit organizations in New York's Westchester County and Connecticut's Fairfield County.

"I am so honored and grateful that through MasterCard International's generosity, more high school students will be given an opportunity to attend college, pursue teaching as a profession, and more importantly, become role models in their communities," said Dr. Bettye Perkins, Executive Director, TSTT.

With funds provided by MasterCard International in 2003-2004, TSTT helped to support 125 students with a full range of key support services. These services included support in the college exploration, selection and admissions process. TSTT provided SAT preparation through a partnership with Kaplan Educational Centers and College Pilot, an on-line SAT preparation course. Maintaining the partnerships with 15 colleges and universities, TSTT ensured that students had the financial resources necessary for college expenses. Each eligible TSTT graduate received a 50% tuition scholarship to one of TSTT's partner colleges and universities. TSTT also continued to provide workshops on college success strategies to assist TSTT students to be prepared to succeed in college. TSTT also provided a high school and college mentor to TSTT students to assist them with career counseling, academic assistance, and other social development needs.

TSTT enhanced the tutoring training workshops by adding training on child abuse and violence prevention. The training workshops were modified to include a new workshop on "The Use of Technology in the Classroom."

With funding provided by MasterCard International, TSTT also formed a new partnership with Hastings-on-Hudson School District, increasing school district partners to 23. TSTT also formed a new college partnership with Sacred Heart University in Fairfield County, CT, to offer a 50% tuition scholarship to eligible TSTT students bringing our total college partners to 16. Fifty-six (56) high school seniors, 100% were enrolled in college increasing our TSTT college students to over 200. TSTT placed six (6) college graduates into teaching positions, increasing our total number to 25 TSTT graduates who are now teaching in local schools. TSTT has placed 100% of their college graduates into teaching positions.

MasterCard, headquartered in Purchase, New York, created the Youth Education and Technology Fund to help underserved youth achieve academic success, prepare for future careers, and fully harness the benefits of technology. Launched in 2001, the program annually awards twenty $10,000 grants throughout Westchester and Fairfield, providing 10 grants per county. MasterCard has invested more than $500,000 in dozens of local nonprofits through the program over the past three years, improving opportunities for students from kindergarten through high school.

"Supporting programs that provide educational opportunities in the communities where we work and live is key to helping our local youth embark on a successful future," said Catherine Cummings, Senior Vice President, Global Communications, MasterCard International. "MasterCard applauds the grant recipients and looks forward to the important accomplishments that their work will achieve for the local community."

About TSTT
Today's Students Tomorrow's Teachers (TSTT) was founded in 1994, and incorporated as a 501 (c) 3 in 1998. TSTT began as a partner with 2 school districts and 7 students in the Fall of 1994. Because the need to diversify the teaching force is a critical issue for many school districts, TSTT has expanded the number of school district partners and the number of students served every year since 1994. For all of TSTT's partners and potential employers, a long-term investment strategy is one of the keys to TSTT's success. TSTT's retention is over 90% at the high school level and over 70% at the college level. TSTT also has expanded its collaborations with colleges and universities to provide a minimum 50% tuition scholarship for TSTT graduates.

In 2004, TSTT established a new partnership with Hastings school district and maintained partnerships with 22 school districts to provide mentoring, supervised internships and college preparation to over 325 high school and college students who want to enter teaching. TSTT now has collaborations with 16 colleges and universities to provide financial aid and mentoring to TSTT graduates. 200 TSTT graduates are enrolled in college to pursue teaching and other teaching-related careers. 25 TSTT graduates are now teaching in local schools. TSTT has placed a 100% of their college graduates into teaching positions.

TSTT's mission is to prepare tomorrow's teachers, with a particular focus on preparing minority students to become teachers and increase the diversity of the teaching force. TSTT accomplishes this mission through a long-term mentoring and career development leadership program with minority and economically disadvantaged high school students to engage them in tutoring internships, support their graduation from high school, support their acceptance into postsecondary education with scholarships, support their graduation from college and finally enable them to enter the workforce as certified teachers and leaders in their communities.

About MasterCard International
MasterCard International is a leading global payments solutions company that provides a broad variety of innovative services in support of our global members' credit, deposit access, electronic cash, business-to-business and related payment programs. MasterCard International manages a family of well-known, widely accepted payment cards brands including MasterCard , Maestro and Cirrus and serves financial institutions, consumers and businesses in over 210 countries and territories. The MasterCard award-winning Priceless advertising campaign is now seen in 96 countries and in 47 languages, giving the MasterCard brand a truly global reach and scope. For more information go to www.mastercardinternational.com.

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