Grants & Scholarships
There's Something Special About Hope
When Jane Rosenbloom Bermont returned to Hope High School more than 40 years after her 1965 graduation, the experience was both discouraging and inspiring. She encountered talented students facing significant financial barriers to higher education. “I asked myself, ‘Who’s going to provide them with opportunities to broaden their world?’” Jane recalls.
The answer, it turned out, was Jane and a dedicated group of alumni volunteers. With encouragement from Hope administrators and guidance counselors, Hope High Dollars for Scholars was established in 2011 with a simple but powerful mission: to expand access to educational opportunities for Hope High students by providing one-time and renewable scholarship awards.
“Hope is a very different school than when we were here,” observes Andrea Mattia, Class of ‘65 and former communications chair for the program. “Most of the students live in families below the poverty line, and many kids have to work while attending school.” Despite these challenges, the determination and perseverance of these students demonstrate what makes the school remarkable. As Andrea puts it, “There’s something special about Hope.”
That special spark has inspired remarkable generosity. Since awarding its first scholarship in 2012, the program has provided $552,000 in support to 155 students over the last 14 years. What began with $12,000 raised in its first year has grown into a robust endowment that now exceeds $1 million.
The program’s evolution reflects both careful planning and genuine care for Hope’s students. Jane, a retired management consultant, understood the importance of infrastructure and organizational integrity when creating and administering a scholarship program. At the program’s inception, Scholarship America provided the necessary framework, and by 2014, Hope High Dollars for Scholars had become an award-winning chapter of the national organization.
“We came to understand that our job was fundraising, and we provided laptops and backpacks,” Jane explains, “but what was most critical for these kids was the teamwork of encouragement for the students that came to be, in part, through this program.”
"Receiving the Hope High Dollars for Scholars scholarship in 2019 meant everything to me."
- Alanis Concepcion
Andrea, a retired Providence elementary school teacher, experienced this impact firsthand. After receiving a fundraising email in 2012 from Christina Ricci, Vice President of Hope High Dollars for Scholars, Andrea joined the board as Communications Chair and began connecting with scholarship recipients. “I would get in touch with the kids who were receiving the scholarships, talk with them, and try to have some personal conversations with them,” she recalls. “Having been a teacher in Providence, I realized that these kids were just taller and older than the kids that sat in my classroom, and my great hope was that they would be able to find a way to go to college.”
As the program grew and time passed, the organization faced the common challenge of volunteer leadership succession. In 2023, the Hope High Dollars for Scholars board made the difficult decision to dissolve as a nonprofit and transition the program to the Rhode Island Foundation. This transition served to ensure the scholarship program continued in perpetuity, while expanding opportunities for students.
“We had three goals for the endowment: good investments, a better connection to the community, and the ability to continue awarding scholarships into the future,” Jane explains. “We felt confident partnering with the Foundation.”
The shift has already yielded significant benefits for students. Through the Foundation’s Universal Eligibility Quiz, a questionnaire that identifies all Foundation scholarships for which they are eligible, scholarship applicants can now access additional funding opportunities. In 2025 alone, 22 Hope High scholarship awardees received over $25,000 in additional support by completing the quiz while applying for Hope High scholarships.
IBM Data Platform Sales Engineer Raymond Perez, a Hope graduate and past scholarship recipient, reflects on the program’s impact: “At a time when financial challenges could have limited my future, this support opened doors that led me to earn both my bachelor’s and master’s degrees. It allowed me to focus on my studies, gain meaningful experiences, and ultimately launch a fulfilling career working in data and artificial intelligence. Years later, I look back with deep gratitude knowing that this scholarship laid the foundation for everything I’ve been able to achieve.”
What drives such devoted support for Hope High students? Jane believes it stems from a unique moment in history – for the school and for the country. “We graduated in the middle of the civil rights movement, and we were at a school that was very integrated and diverse. We were all together, and people got to know each other. There was a real feeling of opportunity, and the desire to make the world a better place.”
“Receiving the Hope High Dollars for Scholars scholarship in 2019 meant everything to me,” explains Alanis Concepcion. “Every bit of support made a real difference. I was, and still am, incredibly grateful not only for the financial help, but also for the continued encouragement and sense of community I’ve found through fellow Hope High alumni. Now, as a teacher in the Providence School District and a volunteer reviewer for the Hope High Endowment Fund, it’s an honor to give back.”
This spirit of possibility continues to inspire donors today. “When I would tell people that we were raising scholarship funds for a school in Providence, the assumption was that this was for a private school. Nobody could believe that we were effectively fundraising for a public high school,” Jane notes.
Now housed within the Rhode Island Foundation’s comprehensive scholarship program, which offered $4 million in scholarships to the state’s students in 2025, the Hope High School Scholarship program continues the vital work of helping to reduce college debt and provide encouragement to young people following their dreams. With a robust endowment ensuring future support, the legacy of educational opportunities at Hope High School is secure.
The Hope High School Scholarship program stands as a testament to the nurture and dedication of its alumni, committed community support, and the belief that every student deserves the chance to pursue a quality education. As the program continues under the Rhode Island Foundation’s stewardship, it ensures that future generations will discover what its donors, scholars, and volunteers have always known: there is, indeed, something special about Hope.
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