Growing up in the city of brotherly love and sisterly affection, where the murder rate grew with me, where students didn’t drop out but were pushed out, where little girls thought having babies was the new tend and where higher education for many wasn’t an option. Like many of my peers from both high school and now college, we know all to well the importance of the PELL Grant Program (
http://www2.ed.gov/programs/fpg/index.html
) and what it means to the likelihood of us both attending and graduating from College.
Life or Death: Unlike many of my neighborhood friends, I was lucky…lucky to have not only made it out of my community alive but also to be given the opportunity to attend college. This is something that neither my father nor mother accomplished, which may not have happened without the support of the Pell Grant program; a program that provides educational grants to students with financial need, students like me.
I don’t come from a background of wealthy parents or even college educated, my mother had her first child at the age of 16 and by the time I was old enough to look in the mirror, I was one of 16 children. Not only did my parents not attend college, my mother has been a career welfare recipient since before I could walk and if I depended on financial support from my father, it would be only after the Virginia State Correlation Center received their cut.
But my circumstances are not limited to my experience; circumstances like mines or worst, are what students across the nation are facing everyday. Yet they have still found the strength to push though and try to make more of themselves by graduating from high school and attending college. This may not have been possibly without government funding, like the Pell Grant program.
The Pell Grant program took a 4 billion dollar hit, earlier this year and now the U.S. House of Representatives have placed a bulls eye on the dreams of young people, by proposing an addition cut of $10 billion from the program. This cut will force the Pell Grant to drop its maximum award by nearly 45 percent, which will also cause 1.7 million students to either receive a smaller grant or lose their grant all together. (
http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/articles/2011/03/02/potential-cuts-to-pell-grant-could-affect-students-in-2011
With today (July 25, 2011) being declared as “SAVE Pell Grant DAY” young and old people from around the country are taking action, by calling/writing the representatives, using social media like facebook and twitter to get the word out, as well as blogging about their experiences. Below is a video about how the possibility of another Pell Grant reduction will affect students:
To find out how you can get involve please visit the link below because supporting the Pell Grant, supports students like ME!
