The link between enabling residents access to a better education and providing resident businesses access to a better workforce is crucial for our region to thrive.

DEF projects will continue to assist and support the people of our communities, businesses, and schools so that the value and importance of education in our region will grow and all will benefit.

Financial Aid Clearinghouse and DEF-CCAP

The Financial Aid Clearinghouse involves continually updating and compiling information on local scholarships, where local students have a priority as opposed to national scholarships where one competes with students all over the country. Our online, searchable database of local scholarships are for students of all ages. In the "Scholarships and Aid" section of this website you can Find A Scholarship using our scholarship database and also use the links to Federal and State Resources for financial aid. This project began thanks to grant monies from the Lower Shore Workforce Alliance and our partnership with the Wicomico Public Library.

DEF-CCAP, our College/Career Access Program aims to boost the college-going potential and career preparation of young people on the lower Delmarva Peninsula. The program began in some local high schools in 2006 through grant funding from the Rural Maryland Council (RMC), the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, and support from local educational institutions, businesses, and individuals.

Since 2007 and through 2010 more students benefit from this program, in part thanks to GEAR UP grants from the Maryland Higher Education Commission via the University of Maryland Eastern Shore.

DEF developed the DEF Delmarva Common Scholarship Application to facilitate the scholarship application process for local students and organizations. If you administer a scholarship for which local students would be eligible and you would like them to be able to use this application please Contact Us.

Regional Education Information Center (REIC)

The Shirley B. Harting Regional Education Information Center (REIC) is complementary to our college/career access program, DEF is establishing another online, searchable inventory about local programs available that further education and/or skills for local residents. Our aim is to be able to tell anyone where he or she can get the education and training in our region for most careers or jobs.

Additionally, DEF is always compiling information on our local schools (private and public, academic and technical, pre-elementary to post-secondary), home schooling groups, libraries, tutoring services, GED classes and other resources that provide the opportunity to gain more knowledge or skills. This project has already become a significant resource for our seven-county region.

Educator Networking: a source of new ideas, a place to meet

DEF provides a forum for developing and sharing ideas that relate to improving educational opportunities for the region, particularly regarding access and quality.

DEF convenes the Regional High School Principal's Network. Local public high school principals meet regularly to share concerns, challenges, and best practices. Learn more about thiis important initiative...

>the genesis - DEF forms Delmarva High Schools Principals Network (April 24,2007),

>the next step - High School Principals Explore Regional Concerns (February 26, 2009).

DEF held a Financial Aid Forum in 2005 for area high school guidance counselors, college financial aid officers, and representatives from organizations that provide scholarships to local students to discuss ideas for streamlining the scholarship application process in general and to look at the pros and cons of a regional common scholarship application. The group looked at samples and offered suggestions for DEF to design a local common scholarship application and ways to promote awareness of such a resource to local scholarship sponsors for which it would be useful. DEF received grants from the Rural Development Center at UMES, an EDA University Center, to initiate and follow through on this project in 2007.

DEF hosted a Rural Education Symposium in 2003 to bring together active members of the national rural education and policy research community with our regional educational leadership to share what is known about rural education policy and research across the United States.

By following up in 2004 with a Forum on Place-Based Education, an instructional strategy with a background of proven success in rural areas similar to ours, we have kept our commitment to provide more information about this learning method and its potential benefits to our region.

DEF will find passageways for exploring and sharing the special nature of our region with others and thus bring to our communities whatever benefits that research makes possible.