2023 budget could add $500,000 in financial aid for struggling students
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Indy Achieves, created in 2018, was an initiative of Mayor Joe Hogsett.
It teams up with Indiana University Purdue University-Indianapolis and Ivy Tech Community College to help Marion County residents get education and training needed to fill out the work force in Marion County.
Hogsett wants to put an extra $500,000 into the program as part of the 2023 city budget.
Matt Impink, executive director of Indy Achieves, said Tuesday, “We end up providing two types of financial aid scholarships. One is called the promise scholarship.”
The promise scholarship is for any new Marion County student going to IUPUI or Ivy Tech. It helps close the gaps on what they might need financially to cover their academic costs.
“We also provide completion grants. These are for students who are at risk of stopping out and not continuing their education, and for students who have stopped out for any number of reasons and want to go back,” Impink said.
Impink says it’s not uncommon for students to be just a few credits away from graduating before they’re forced out because of incontrollable circumstances.
“These are students who have a real desire to get their degree, and have gone through a lot of different challenges and ups and downs along the way to get it, and we provide a small part to get them across the finish line,” Impink said.
Katie Adams is Ivy Tech’s vice chancellor for enrollment and student success. She says Indy Achieves doesn’t just provide money, it also provides another chance at the life that struggling students were hoping for. “This really opens the door and clears the way for them to get back in and have the success they knew they could have.”
Adams says the program also gives Ivy Tech the ability to reach students who have have thought they did not had a chance at a college education. “This allows us the opportunity to reach out into our communities and surrounding neighborhoods and say, ‘College is very possible and this is how we can get this done for you,’” Adams said.
The hope is results in a stronger work force for Marion County. Impink said, “We want you to stay here. We want you to raise a family here, want you to grow your career here. We want you to do amazing innovative things here. So, this is really an investment by Indianapolis in our future talent of our city, and that’s incredibly important.”