Frequently Asked Questions

The program is open to rising high school seniors enrolled in the Alamance-Burlington School System. However, students already enrolled in the Elon Academy, a four-year college access program at Elon.

Yes!

Absolutely, your socio-economic status does not qualify or disqualify you for the Freedom Scholars program. We want civic-minded, emerging leaders first and foremost.

Students who meet the criteria for the program are able to apply free of charge.

Nothing. The Freedom Scholars program is offered to cohort members free of charge. In fact, each Scholar will earn a small honorarium, half to be offered at the d of the Fall programming, and the other half to be offered at the end of the program. This honorarium is offered with the intention of helping to offset the financial pressures enrolling in the program may impose.

The program has intentionally not placed a GPA requirement on admission to the program. We take a holistic approach and use a combination of factors, such as quality of the Scholar’s application, recommendation letter, range of courses completed, and leadership potential, to identify the strongest candidates and those best suited and ready to take advantage of the opportunities the program offers.

Freedom Scholars will attend a two-week summer residency at Elon University during the summer before or at the end of their senior year of high school.

During this program, students will work intensively within the Elon network to explore the principles and concepts of freedom, citizenship and democracy advanced in ancient, modern and contemporary texts. Before completing the summer program, scholars will identify a challenge facing their local community, and design a service project in which these principles are embedded. At the end of the yearlong program, Freedom Scholars will present their work at the Freedom Scholars Symposium.

Throughout the course of the program, Freedom Scholars develop their mentoring networks, strengthen their written, oral and deductive skills, and hone their leadership abilities. Upon completion of the program, Scholars will be prepared to assume and deepen roles as active citizen-leaders in their communities. Scholars will also earn college credit and an honorarium for their successful completion of program requirements.

No.

While Freedom Scholars are highly encouraged to apply to Elon University and for Honors, Fellows and other scholarship programs for which they qualify, Scholars may choose to attend any other college/university. Application fees are waived for Elon Freedom Scholars.

In addition to the summer course the program offers, Freedom Scholars are eligible to apply to Collegiate Start, an Elon University and ABSS partnership that allows successful applicants to taje up to 8 sh of college classes at the University in Fall and Spring. Freedom Scholars, therefore, could potentially earn up to 20 semester hours of college credit from elon University.

Although we hope that all our Freedom Scholars will continue to advance their education via the college pathway, the program is here to support the Freedom Scholars in their high school pursuits.