By Alison McFerrin

The Selma Times-Journal

Wallace’s Educational Talent Search program is still good to go after receiving grant money for another year.

“This year, competition was kind of stiff,” director of the Educational Talent Search Program at Wallace College Betty Bentley said. “I was a little bit worried because they’ve got a lot of new guidelines, and the cut-off score was so high.”

The program counts on the $344,385 it customarily receives each year to continue the services it provides to Selma, Dallas County and Perry County students.

“The big deal this time was (having) the rigorous curriculum,” Bentley said, which involves adding AP and dual enrollment classes. “That’s something they say the area needs.”

In order to continue to receive funds, Bentley said they had to score high in a variety of categories — like need, objective, plan and personnel. This year, programs had to score 99.5 points out of 100.

The grant money, which Bentley said she got notification of Thursday, will allow Educational Talent Search to continue to provide improvement programs, help with financial aid and ensure all students are prepared for college.

“We provide academic counseling … field trip to colleges, cultural experiences for students, tutorial programs … a variety of different programs,” Bentley said. “We start (with) sixth and seventh graders and keep them all the way up through 12th.”

James Mitchell, Wallace Community College Selma president, said this money is an asset to the area.

“Any time that we can provide additional programs to our students in this community, it’s a plus,” Mitchell said.