By COREY McMULLEN
On Oct. 2, Pima Community College announced its new partnership with “Earn to Learn.”
Pima is the first community college to partner up this program, said Pima Chancellor Lee Lambert during a recent press conference.
Earn to Learn is a national organization formed in 2013 that operates the largest matched savings program in the country. Its efforts are designed to help low- and moderate-income students graduate from colleges with little-to-no student debt.
The program is open to current students that are new to higher education. Students should go to earntolearn.org, and the deadline to register is Oct. 25.
Students eligible for this program save up to $500 and become eligible for matching funds up to $4,000 – an 8:1 match – to help with tuition, fees and any other school-related expenses.
Beyond income qualifications, Earn to Learn scholars must complete financial literacy training and the 2020-2021 Free Application for Federal Student Aid. Students also are expected to complete 30 credits by the end of the 2020-2021 school year.
Earn to Learn is a renewable scholarship, meaning students can reapply for this scholarship every year.
“You know I would say it goes back to those early conversations from there,” said Lambert when asked how long this has been in the works.
During the press conference, Lambert let it be known that that at Pima has offered free tuition for Pell Grant-eligible students for quite a long time, so people “should not lose that perspective.”
“All of these students need tools in their tool chest, right?” asked Kate Hoffman, executive director of Earn to Learn. “Earn to Learn is just one example. But all these students need many tools in their tool chest to be successful. At the end, we’re trying to minimize, if not eliminate, student loan debt.”
Hoffman is going to Washington, D.C., this week because of the national interest in the concept that is Earn to Learn. She’s hoping that this could be a new model of financing higher education.
“I’m super excited,” she said. “Because it means Arizona is literally trail blazing this approach to financing higher ed, and there are so many other states at the table that are in interested in replicating it.”
Hoffman said that Earn to Learn has secured funding to expand into Florida, Nevada and Ohio.