A sizeable portion of Southwestern College students struggle with more than math, English and speech classes. One in three suffered from housing insecurity. One in four do not understand how to successfully apply for financial aid. One in five report food insecurity.
A new grant aims to help.
SWC Cares Emergency Grants were created to assist students at risk of dropping out from unexpected financial emergencies. Creators say it is intended to aid students to stay in school and complete their educational goals.
The ASO kicked off the fund raising with a $45,000 donation. SWC’s Foundation has also pledged funding.
SWC Cares grants may be used for food, financial assistance, personal wellness, safety, legal issues, immigration resources, childcare and family support.
Financial Aid Director Patti Larkin said many students have responsibilities aside from school that interfere with educational goals.
“Extraordinary things happen in the middle of the semester,” she said. “We want to allow students to address that need with a little bit of financial assistance to stay in school.”
Thousands of SWC students reported that they could not locate resources including FAFSA, she said. When students are overwhelmed with the application, they fill it out incorrectly or they don’t fill it out at all, she said.
“The intent of SWC Cares was to take that difficulty away,” she said.
“Students can make very poor decisions with their financial aid,” she said. “Sometimes they spend it (all immediately) and don’t have money for the rest of the year.”
Academic Senate President Andrew Rempt said it is important to support students.
“We have a number of students facing life challenges,” he said. “SWC Cares attempts to create a one-stop website where all the resources are.”
Larkin said the SWC Cares team is looking for revenue streams to sustain the grant program. Employees may support it through payroll deductions to the SWC Foundation.
Rempt said it is important for students to have food, shelter and security so they can focus on their studies.
“The college has been very active in making sincere efforts to help our students reach the end of this particular journey,” he said.
Dr. Luke Wood of the SDSU Community College Equity Assessment Lab said SWC students come from underserved communities.
“We see nationally that there’s 4.8 million individuals that are living in poverty,” he said.
According to the USDA, 14.5 percent of U.S. households experience food insecurity and approximately 1.7 million students experience homelessness.
“Food insecurity is when students don’t know where that next meal is going to be coming from and having an unstable source of food,” Wood said.
One third of all community college students report housing insecurity, said Wood. SWC provides shower facilities at the gym and enrollment priority for homeless students.
All financial aid forms and resources are online at www.swccd.edu/swccares.edu.
