Foundation commits to UA scholarship program helping low-income families

With BC-CNS-Scholarship Grant-Box

By ALYSON ZEPEDA
Cronkite News Service

PHOENIX (Thursday, Feb. 19) _ A $2 million grant announced Thursday will help the University of Arizona fulfill its promise to help high-performing graduates from lower-income families graduate on time and free of debt, the school’s president said.

The Helios Education Foundation, a nonprofit based in Arizona and Florida, pledged the money to the Arizona Assurance scholarship program, which last fall provided nearly 600 UA freshmen with free tuition, books and living expenses.

“This is one more statement that the program is real, and whatever your age, if you are a 10th-grader or a 10-year-old, you should prepare for college because it is available to you,” Shelton said.

The scholarship is a combination of federal Pell Grants and private funding. Recipients must be Arizona residents, eligible for Pell Grants and from families that make less than $42,400 per year.

Arizona Assurance participants earn part of the scholarships by working 10-12 hours at on-campus jobs. They are required to take part in programs aimed at retaining students.

Vince Roig, chairman of the Helios Education Foundation, said the investment is especially important with the U.S. mired in recession.

“When you talk about where you can make the best investment in the economy … you have to really start at the grass roots, and that’s providing post-secondary education for people,” he said.

Though not part of the eligibility requirements, the scholarship is targeted at those who could become the first in their families to attend a four-year college.

“There is no ability to dream when no one else has gone before you, so it is that much harder to get excited about going to college,” Roig said.

Shelton, the first in his family to attend college, said he hopes the scholarship will not only make attending college possible but expected for future generations.

“This is going to transform this generation when they start to have children,” he said. “It’ll just be the norm in their families that you’re going to go to college.”

Shelton and Roig announced the grant before a group of students at Camelback High School, joined by Elisa Meza, a UA freshman who is benefitting from Arizona Assurance.

Meza said she probably wouldn’t have been able to attend college without the scholarship.

“It definitely makes a big difference at a time like this,” she said. “It allows me to keep going.”

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CAPTION FOR BC-CNS-SCHOLARSHIP GRANT: University of Arizona President Robert N. Shelton speaks with students at Camelback High School in Phoenix during an event marking the Helios Education Foundation’s $2 million commitment to the Arizona Assurance scholarship program, which allows lower-income students to graduate debt-free in four years. (Cronkite News Service Photo/Alyson Zepeda)

CAPTION FOR BC-CNS-SCHOLARSHIP GRANT: University of Arizona President Robert N. Shelton speaks at Camelback High School in Phoenix during an event marking the Helios Education Foundation’s $2 million commitment to the Arizona Assurance scholarship program, which allows lower-income students to graduate debt-free in four years. (Cronkite News Service Photo/Alyson Zepeda)

CAPTION FOR BC-CNS-SCHOLARSHIP GRANT: Vince Roig, chairman of the Helios Education Foundation, and Elisa Meza of Tucson, freshman English major at University of Arizona, attend a news conference announcing a $2 million grant to a UA program that helps students from lower-income families. Meza is a recipient of a scholarship from the Arizona Assurance program, which helps students graduate debt-free in four years. (Cronkite News Service Photo/Alyson Zepeda)