Susquehanna County Career & Technology Center: Funding Student Educational Needs through Partnership with Foundation
At a Glance
Through a collaboration between Susquehanna County Career & Technology Center (SCCTC) and the Community Foundation of the Endless Mountains, SCCTC students who are financially eligible can receive scholarships to pay for the necessary expenses of their CTE program and the certification tests.
Description
Many SCCTC students and their families struggle to afford the student equipment toolkits, uniforms, and other expenses related to their CTE program area. They also are unable to afford the fees to take the credentialing exams or certification tests. To address these challenges, SCCTC established a working relationship with the Community Foundation of the Endless Mountains to provide financial scholarships to students. Established in 2005, the Peoples Scholar Award for Career and Technology Center Students covers the fees associated with the CTE program and certification tests.
Students whose annual household income is below $75,000, with an additional allowance of $15,000 per dependent, are eligible for the scholarship. (See https://community-foundation.org/scholarships/eitc-tuition-based-k-12/career-technology-center.html.) Approximately 90% of SCCTC students meet the eligibility requirements.
The scholarship is offered on an annual basis. To fund the scholarships, businesses and industry groups make donations to the Foundation as Education Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) funds.
SCCTC requests that all new students and their families attend a mandatory orientation to learn about the program. To apply for the scholarship, parents must complete a short, one-page application and submit it to SCCTC along with the first page of their 1040 tax form. SCCTC then forwards the documents to the Foundation for approval. (To address privacy concerns, parents may submit their 1040 tax form to the school in a sealed envelope, and the school sends the sealed envelope on to the Foundation.) The application process closes on October 1 each year.
SCCTC plans to continue working with The Community Foundation to address the financial needs of all students. For more information, see https://community-foundation.org/ .
Impact
Each year, the foundation provides about $50,000 in scholarship funds to SCCTC students.
Contact
Susquehanna County Career & Technology Center
www.scctc-school.org
Dr. Alice M. Davis, Executive Director
alice.davis@scctc-school.org