KSI's History
The concept of Kauffman Scholars evolved from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation's earlier experience with the Project Choice program. Project Choice was a high school dropout prevention program initiated by Ewing Kauffman in 1988. Students signed up for the program in the ninth grade with an agreement to stay in school, avoid illegal drugs, and graduate high school on time. If they met those terms, the Kauffman Foundation agreed to pay for post-secondary education at a state or regional institution. By the program's end in 1992, nearly 1,400 ninth grade students had entered the program with many going on to graduate from college. In 2003 with lessons learned from Project Choice, the Board of Trustees of the Kauffman Foundation approved the launch of a more ambitious program, Kauffman Scholars.