Today’s students will one day join a talent pool and workforce that includes thousands of CSU graduates who have been influencing and advancing society’s collective good for the better part of 50 years.

Engineering a sustainable future

Kristen Reyes quite literally wants to the leave the world a better place. “I believe that we’re all stewards of...

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LAST-MILE SCHOLARSHIPS

Helping Students Cross the Finish Line

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Getting to Graduation. Sometimes students arrive almost at the brink of graduation, only to find they’ve maxed out their loans and scholarships.

With just one or two semesters to go, they may have to drop out, look for work, and hope to make it back some day to finish college. The odds of making it back, though, are grim: students who drop out involuntarily—even for a single semester—have only a 30% chance of coming back and earning their degrees.

Continuum arrow graduation

With CSU’s Last-Mile scholarships, though, cash-strapped students don’t have to drop out. They can stay, finish their studies and earn their degrees without missing a beat.

Last-Mile scholarships award up to $3,000 per semester to full-time juniors or seniors with a GPA of 3.0 or higher, who cannot otherwise afford college tuition and fees.

In the last decade, CSU has awarded nearly 2,000 Last-Mile scholarships. Nearly 85% of those were awarded to students who went on to graduate.

Close to half of the Last-Mile scholarship recipients are first-generation college students, and nearly 35% are racial or ethnic minorities.

80% of Cleveland State University graduates live, work and raise families in Northeast Ohio, so helping our students graduate helps our entire geographic region.

Drewcilla

DREWCILLA, 2016 GRADUATE, COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS AND SOCIAL SCIENCE

“My Last-Mile scholarship put me one step closer to becoming the first graduate in my family and to earning a degree in school psychology. The most important thing any of us can do is to make a positive difference in someone else’s life. Last-Mile scholarship donors do that.”

Amanda

AMANDA, 2018 GRADUATE, COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES

“Growing up in the foster care system, my journey to Cleveland State was anything but easy. I was offered scholarships and financial aid that allowed me to enroll at CSU. My Last-Mile scholarships in junior and senior years were a true lifeline for someone who grew up with nothing. Thank you for giving me the chance to beat the odds and achieve success.”

If you are a student looking for support from any of these initiatives, please visit the 2-for-1 Tuition Promise, Lift Up Vikes!, or the Last-Mile Scholarship information pages.

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