Reading, Pa.– Reading High School senior Taylor Kutz has been awarded the first 13 th Street Gang Scholarship since its creation in 2006. Kutz will attend Albright as a freshman in fall 2009.

In the 1960s, North 13 th Street was noted in a Ripley’s Believe it or Not article for being the only place in the United States where one can go from kindergarten to elementary school, junior high to high school, and then to college without ever leaving the same street.

In recognition of this educational phenomenon, Albright College and the Reading School District established the 13 th Street Gang Scholarship. Thescholarship is worth up to $15,000 per year or $60,000 over four years. All freshmen applicants are eligible for consideration if they have graduated from Reading High School, Northeast Middle School and 13 th & Green and/or 13 th & Union Elementary Schools.

More than 100 Albright College alumni are among the 13 th Street Gang members, including Christ G. Kraras, president of White Star Tours in Reading and Kathy Cafoncelli, assistant to Albright College President Lex O. McMillan III.

President McMillan said, “We are committed to being good neighbors and partners in the quality of life in our community. This scholarship is an additional way in which we can show a tangible expression of our commitment to greater Reading. We look forward to welcoming Taylor to Albright College and to the class of 2013.”

Founded in 1856, Albright College is a nationally ranked, private college with a rigorous liberal arts curriculum with an interdisciplinary focus. The College’s hallmarks are connecting fields of learning, collaborative teaching and learning, and a flexible curriculum that allows students to create an individualized education. Two-thirds of students graduate with dual/individualized majors in more than 200 different combinations. Albright enrolls about 1,625 undergraduates in traditional programs, another 500 adult students in accelerated degree programs, and 100 students in the master’s program in education. Albright College is located in Reading, Pennsylvania, about 60 miles west of Philadelphia.