Ulrich outlines Pell grant impact in DC
Iowa Central president was part of congressional briefing
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By BILL SHEA
bshea@messengernews.net
Iowa Central Community College President Jesse Ulrich was in Washington, D.C., Friday telling national leaders how a new version of federal student aid will make an impact locally.
That new form of aid is called Workforce Pell. Iowa Central is the first school in the nation authorized to use the Workforce Pell program.
At Iowa Central, it is available to people pursuing training as emergency medical technicians.
Ulrich was part of a congressional briefing organized by the Association of Community College Trustees and the Community College Coalition.
"When people come to Iowa Central, we want them to finish their degrees or certifications in as short a time as possible with the least amount of student debt so they can go on and live a better life," Ulrich told the gathering, according to information provided by the Association of Community College Trustees.
"We understand that not every student needs a four-year degree to have a better life," he added. "At the same time, every student coming out of high school needs some type of training and certification or technical degree to have a better life."
Pell grants are a kind of federal student aid that have been available to college students for decades. Generally, only students pursuing two-year or four-year degrees could get them. The federal departments of Education and Labor have worked together over the last couple of years to create a program making those grants available to students in training programs that last eight to 15 weeks. The Iowa Central EMT program is 14 weeks long.
On April 1, Iowa Department of Education officials submitted a Workforce Pell application to the federal government. It included nine programs at four community colleges. That application was the first one received at the federal level.
The Iowa Central EMT program was the first of those nine to be approved by federal officials and thus became the first in the nation qualified for Workforce Pell.
To celebrate that ground-breaking status, Gov. Kim Reynolds, U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon and U.S. Acting Secretary of Labor Keith Sonderling came to Iowa Central on Aug. 4 for a special event.
The congressional briefing capped a week of meetings In Washington for Ulrich.