DES MOINES COMMUNITY COLLEGE: DMACC Students Receive More Than $1.5 Million in Iowa Last-Dollar Scholarships During the Fall 2020 Semester

By Press release submission

Dec 26, 2020

Des Moines Community College issued the following announcement on Dec. 22.

The Iowa Last-Dollar Scholarship program continues to be very popular with DMACC students. A total of $1,546,924 was awarded to DMACC students in the most recently completed fall semester.

The fall 2020 semester scholarships, funded by the state of Iowa, were broken down into two groups:

Recent high school students ― 324 recent high school students received scholarships totaling $558,441
Adults ― 925 adults received scholarships totaling $988,483

“This program, as the name implies, is intended to cover any remaining gap between federal and state grants/scholarships, and tuition and qualified fees," said Ean Freels, DMACC Financial Aid Director.

The fall 2020 semester marked the start of the second year of the Iowa Last-Dollar Scholarship program, which is part of Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds' Future Ready Iowa initiative.

Freels said to be eligible for the program for the upcoming spring semester, students would have had to complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (also known as the FAFSA form) by Aug. 1, 2020. The deadline to complete the FAFSA for Last-Dollar Scholarship consideration for the fall 2021 semester is July 1, 2021.

Freels said to qualify for the Last Dollar Scholarships, students must be enrolled in one of the many in-demand DMACC programs that qualify for the program (view the full list here).

“Last-Dollar Scholars is a program designed with community need in mind. The programs that are eligible are those that serve the 'skills gap,' and people genuinely want to get into these fields," said Dr. Steve Pankey, DMACC Director of Enrollment Services & Registrar. “It's powerful when policy and necessity collide."

DMACC Dental Hygiene student Courtney McCrystal was a recent recipient of an Iowa Last-Dollar Scholarship.

“The Last-Dollar Scholarship was able to help me be able to afford to be in a program that I dreamed of being in ever since high school," McCrystal said. “I'm so grateful for the Last-Dollar Scholarship because it really helped me with stress. I'm stress-free with money because I was able to afford coming here. It was such a blessing."

To learn more about the Iowa Last-Dollar Scholarship, visit http://lastdollar.dmacc.edu.

For assistance with any questions, please contact the DMACC Financial Aid Office at (515) 964-6282 or toll-free at (800) 362-2127 (choose menu option 3), or email finaid@dmacc.edu.

For more information, contact: Ean Freels, (515) 964-6514, enfreels@dmacc.edu

Original source can be found here.