The New York State Higher Education Services Corporation (HESC) recently announced it will be donating $7 million in college grants through its College Access Challenge Grant program. The grants will be awarded to community groups and other institutions working directly with at-risk college students that are traditionally underserved to help improve college awareness, readiness, and attendance.
The grant is being funded by the U.S. Department of Education and will be administered by the HESC. This will be the third time that the HESC will administer a grant from the U.S. Department of Education. Like previous federal grants, these funds will be dispersed through a competitive process to schools, agencies, and community-based organizations across the state of New York. Groups interested in receiving some this grant money for their work will need to submit a proposal to the HESC. Requests for proposals will be announced on the HESC’s website throughout the year as part of the competitive grant process.
According to acting president of HESC, Elsa Magee, HESC will take a proactive, thorough approach to improving college enrollment and completion rates among disadvantaged students through intervention strategies and activities. Currently, sub-grantees of the College Access Challenge Grant program provide a wide range of valuable services to disadvantaged students such as:
- College readiness, academic skill building, and tutoring programs
- Stay in school support programs
- College admission application and Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) completion assistance
- Training for college advisors and counselors that serve high need, low-income, at-risk students
- Family workshops on college financing, completing the FAFSA application, and other college admission applications
- Debt management and financial literacy workshops
Last year alone, College Access Challenge Grant programs served more than 47,000 New York State students and families. With the assistance of this latest $7 million grant, the program expects to help even more students and their families this upcoming year.
