Canton native, Pelicans guard C.J. McCollum establishes scholarship program in New Orleans

GlenOak High School graduate and New Orleans Pelicans guard C.J. McCollum announced the formation of the The McCollum Scholars program Monday, Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

The program provides an $80,000 scholarship over four years ($20,000 per year) for 10 eligible New Orleans high school students, according to a report from Marc Spears of Andscape.

The scholarship comes with a year of counseling for scholars during their senior year of high school to help them prepare for the transition. That effort will continue while in college where they will receive academic coaching and other resources.

They were the type of resources McCollum lacked growing up in Canton. He told Andscape that his parents could not afford to send him and his brother to college. They both eventually earned basketball scholarships with McCollum being drafted by the Portland Trail Blazers in 2013 out of Lehigh University.

“We all come from different circumstances, different situations, but college is expensive,” McCollum told Andscape. “A lot of times, your neighborhood, your upbringing and where you’re from dictates your ability to do what you want to do. A lot of times, historically, we do what we have to do. But we don’t always get to do what we want to do. In this case, I’m in position, my family is in position to ease the burden on a lot of kids and a lot of families and that’s the ultimate goal.”

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Canton native C.J. McCollum establishes scholarship program