St. Paul, Minnesota – State Representative John Ward (DFL – Baxter) is encouraging area colleges and community-based non-profits to apply for individual grants up to $300,000 in College Ready Grants from Great Lakes Higher Education Guaranty Corporation.
College Ready grants support programs that are actively preparing more students to enroll and succeed in college-level courses. The time, attention, tutoring, and skill-building activities the organizations are providing, through qualified educators and trained tutors, give students expanded options for college and increased opportunities for lifelong success. Grant recipients will provide high school juniors and seniors and adult learners with tutoring, mentoring, and access to skill-building readiness activities to prepare them to be placed in—and pass—college-level math and English.
“This is an excellent grant program aimed at a worthy cause: ensuring our students are meeting important benchmarks,” said Rep. Ward. “I encourage Central Lakes College and other area non-profits to take advantage of their grants to help students, and I thank Great Lakes for making these available. Increasing opportunity for our young people will help our communities and our economy in the future.”
Grants of up to $300,000 each will be available to community-based organizations and nonprofit colleges and universities in Iowa, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin. The grant period for the 2014-2015 College Ready grant is July 1, 2014 through June 30, 2015.
Applications can be found at https://www.mygreatlakes.org/web/community/content/community/grants/readyOverview.html?navMenuItemSelected=grants and are due October 17, 2013.
To be considered for funding, programs must be designed to serve students from traditionally underserved backgrounds (i.e., those from low-income households, students of color, and students who will be the first in their families to attend college) who are in 11th or 12th grade or are adults not currently enrolled in undergraduate classes.
For more information on Great Lakes' College Ready grants contact Nikki Wachter, Community Investments Program Manager, at nwachter@glhec.org or (888) 889-3299.