By MEGAN JAMES
MIDDLEBURY — Justin Spurley, Marietou Paye and Conetrise Holt were the top students of their graduating classes at Atlanta public high schools. When choosing colleges, they could have gone where their friends were going — the University of Florida or Georgia, or even accepted generous scholarships to Emory University in Atlanta.
But these three students chose Middlebury College.
Their parents had never heard of the school. Their friends called it “Middle-of-nowhere-bury,� but with the support of the year-old 21st Century Scholars Program, created by Atlanta native and Middlebury College alumnus Graham Balch, these students applied to a range of northeastern liberal arts colleges they never would have considered before.
The Atlanta public schools are struggling to see their students through college, Balch says, and they attribute this to the lack of gap-financing in southern colleges and universities.
