AWC: Helping students overcome financial barriers towards education

YUMA, Ariz. (KYMA, KSWT, KECY)- CampusWorks awarded Arizona Western College (AWC) with a $2,000 scholarship, which will be used to help get rid of any financial barriers college students might have.

In today's world, college is un-affordable to the majority of students. Most students pay out of pocket costs and have to work several jobs just to make ends meet.

This is the harsh reality of pursuing higher education.

The AWC Foundation looks to help students by providing scholarships to those who qualify.

The foundation helps people like Hannah and Aileen, who were awarded scholarships from the program. Due to the scholarships, both students were able to focus more on schooling.

For Hannah, she was working at Starbucks when someone from the foundation would constantly tell her to visit the foundation and see what opportunities she qualified for.

When Hannah decided to finally see her options, she was awarded a scholarship, in which she said it gave her the opportunity to get an internship related to her major.

She now interns for Helena, a chemical company where she gets to be on the fields looking for different type of bugs.

As for Aileen, she is a double major in Nursing and Business and has been paying for schooling out of pocket since she graduated high school.

Upon receiving scholarships she never thought she would qualify for, she said she didn't have to work as many hours. This allowed her to better prepare for the next semester financially.

The $2,000 from CampusWorks will be used for the Yuma Promise specifically.

The Yuma Promise is for 2020 high school graduates who attend AWC as a full-time student for consecutive semesters and are allowed to finish with no out of pocket tuition or fees.

With the AWC Foundation providing scholarships like these, students are given the opportunity to seek higher education without the burden of financial barriers.