Coconino Community College and the Coconino County Community Services Department are teaming up with local businesses to help students afford a college education.
Regner and officials at CCC looked to Mesa Community College's individual development account program as a model for $ave2Learn. That school has seen encouraging trends in retention, graduation rates and GPAs. For instance, between 10 and 20 percent of Mesa Community College’s overall student body finish a degree program. Among the students in the individual development account program, that figure is around 90 percent.
“It’s addressing a gap that exists in federal financial aid now,” he said. “With the Pell Grant, it’s targeted to the most needy people. As you start working more, your income goes up, so your Pell eligibility goes down. It creates a gap where students are still needy for funds but they’re not being financed by the federal Pell Grant.”