Thanks to this program, thousands in KC metro area have followed their college dream

It’s been four years since the KC Scholars program started its mission to fund college educations all over the metro area. For the 4,296 recipients, those funds have made a world of difference.

The program targets its awards to help students whose families have low or modest incomes. Although traditional students starting college around age 18 represent a large number of the scholarship recipients, some of the money also goes to adults returning to school.

The program is funded in large part through a grant commitment by the Kauffman Foundation, a match by university systems in Missouri, and community donations.

Traditional students get $10,000 per year for up to five years.

Because of these funds, Lee’s Summit High School graduate Cassidy Robinson was able to follow her dream of studying accounting at William Jewell College in Liberty.

“I’ve always been a very organized planning person, and so in eighth grade, I took my first computer class and got a little bit of an insight to accounting. Everything had its place and was organized,” she said.

Although technically a sophomore this year, she has enough credits from her high school International Baccalaureate classes and courses she took at the University of Missouri-Kansas City’s Longview campus while in high school that she’ll graduate a year early.

Initially, teachers at her school told her she didn’t qualify for the KC Scholars program, but thanks to last-minute information from her counselor, she was able to put together an application quickly.

Without KC Scholars, she wouldn’t have been able to afford the tuition at William Jewell and would have had to choose a school based on whatever federal student aid funds she was offered.

“I didn’t want to take out a lot of loans and be paying off a lot of debt,” she said. “I have zero debt right now. Not everything is about finances, but when it comes to college it’s very important. KC Scholars has helped tremendously, and I think it’s such an awesome organization.”

Being at the school of her choice, has opened up opportunities in the accounting world for her. As a first-generation college student, she appreciated the advice she got from KC Scholars advisers about how to navigate the Free Application for Federal Student Aid.

Those same advisers helped her in selecting the college credit classes she took in high school that would guide her toward an accounting degree.

High school advisers guided a Pleasant Hill High School graduate. College wasn’t a sure thing for Johana Rosas. Her scholarship has allowed her to attend the University of Central Missouri to study nursing.

“My parents didn’t go to college, and I really wanted to go, but we were deciding whether we had enough money for me to go or not,” she said.

She also heard about the program from her high school counselor.

“There are probably many students out there who can’t go to college because they don’t have money for it, and I think that’s something that shouldn’t be a barrier for them,” she said. “It’s made a very big difference for me.”

Abraham Simon, an Olathe North graduate now attending the University of Kansas, was also helped by the KC Scholars advisers.

“They catch up with you, (see) how you’re doing in school, if you have any problems with your classes,” he said. “I thought that was pretty cool. It kind of makes you feel like they’re there for you, and they want you succeed.”

Also a first-generation college student, Simon is studying architecture at the University of Kansas after first studying at Johnson County Community College. Without KC Scholars, he said, he wouldn’t have felt free to choose a five-year program like architecture.

“I come from a low-income household. I didn’t want to get $50,000 to 60,000 in debt,” he said. “Where I grew up, it was ‘pick a major that’s cheaper’ so you don’t have to burden yourself with a lot of debt,” he said. “A lot of people have my mentality where if they don’t have the money for it, they’re not going to pursue it, even if they’re passionate about it, because owing money can be a scary thing.”

He said his parents are proud that he got the scholarship and is in college.

Having the scholarship has “definitely relived some of the stress that goes behind college,” he said. “The classes are stressful enough.”