A Powerful Push for Students to Earn a Degree
ningcontent
We’re hearing about so many great things people are doing to raise and give money to the relief efforts in Haiti, even on college campuses. It’s a tragic situation and major organizations like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation are among those giving millions to the effort.
It makes you stop and take notice of all the foundation is doing beyond aiding a world tragedy. Did you know that foundation also is donating billions of dollars to help students attend and graduate from college, particularly community colleges? It’s already given nearly $4 billion in grants and scholarships since 2000.
The foundation a couple of years ago decided to award hundreds of millions of dollars through scholarships and other efforts so low-income young adults in particularly can attend college, and much of these funds are going to community colleges.
And just in December, the Seattle-based foundation gave $12.9 million in technology-related grants to improve the way education is delivered on the community college level and increase graduation rates. Schools that have received those grants include LaGuardia Community College in New York, and Carnegie Mellon University’s Community College Open Learning Initiative (CC-OLI).
It hopes to change the statistic that found three-quarters of first-time community college students do not graduate within three years. Why? Factors include school and family responsibilities, being unprepared for college-level work, and the cost of the courses and degrees.
Seeing the Gates Foundation’s efforts, even if you aren’t directly receiving the money, serves as a great reminder that people, even strangers, care that you get a degree. Now that’s an incentive!
Article by, Lori Johnston and courtesy of CollegeSurfing Insider.
