Crankstart grant encourages former students to return to college, complete degrees

INSIDE TXST

Jayme Blaschke | September 1, 2023

The Crankstart Foundation has awarded a grant to Texas State University to support students returning to higher education after a time away. 

The grant will help fund tuition expenses for undergraduate scholarship recipients with significant financial need, who have experienced a gap in their education and meet the requirements to re-enter Texas State. The grant will support a re-entry scholarship program starting this year through 2026. 

The grant strengthens Texas State’s ongoing efforts to identify and reach out to former students who left the university before obtaining their degree. More than 36 million Americans – including more than 2 million in the state of Texas – have some college experience but have not completed their degrees. This challenge has significant implications for a student’s financial well-being: A college degree translates to an average of $1 million additional earnings over a lifetime, and college graduates are half as likely to be unemployed as those with a high school degree.

The Crankstart grant specifically targets students who have shown academic promise and a commitment to obtaining their degree but have had their studies interrupted by circumstances beyond their control. 

Crankstart is a San Francisco-based family foundation focused on critical issues concerning economic mobility, education, democracy, housing security, the environment, medical science and innovation. For more information, visit crankstart.org.