The College of New Rochelle has been awarded a College Access Challenge Grant of $250,000 from the New York State Higher Education Services Corp. to help people who do not have a high school diploma or the equivalent continue their education.
This comes at a time when the federal government has tightened the eligibility requirements for Pell grants, so people who do not have a high school diploma or equivalency certificate do not qualify.
Here”™s how it works: Any student 21 or older who wants to continue school but doesn”™t have a high school diploma or GED can sign up for an 18-week workshop beginning Aug. 27. The workshop, which is free, meets two days a week at the college”™s South Bronx campus. There students”™ abilities in some of the fundamental areas of education are assessed ”“ reading comprehension, sentence skills and mathematic computation. The goal is for students to be able to pass what is known as the Ability to Benefit test, also called the Accuplacer Test, administered by the College Board. If they pass, they can be admitted to The College of New Rochelle at the South Bronx campus for the spring semester starting in January 2013, to complete the required 24 credits to get a GED. At that point they become eligible for Pell funding. The $250,000 is designed to provide aid for 40 students. If more students enter the program, the college makes up the difference. The program requires that institutions contribute no less than 33 percent of the grant amount.
The program has been around since 2008. This is the first time The College of New Rochelle has received a grant.
“It”™s a hallmark of who we are,” said Darryl Jones, dean of the college”™s School of New Resources, of which the program is part. “Forty years ago this October we began providing people from historically disadvantaged backgrounds with the means to get higher education.”
Jones mentioned a recent study from the Community Service Society detailing the costs to New York City of people without high school diplomas. It showed that each individual, in one way or another, through cash benefits or institutional costs, costs the city $134,000. Those who have completed high school yield a benefit to the city of $192,000.
Jones said 80 percent of those in the workshop pass the test. So far 100 have signed up for the August workshop, all from the South Bronx.
Hans Van Dyk, the college”™s director of corporate and foundation relations, noted that “the program has been renewed every year since 2008, but every year is a new budgetary cycle so of course we don”™t know if it will be refunded for 2013. We certainly hope so.”
