Program 3

Vocational Student Assistance at Laredo College

Partner: Laredo College 

Working in partnership with Laredo College, South Texas Advancement Resource operates a program for workforce development, which incentivizes students to remain successfully enrolled; and complete a vocational certificate program.
Specifically, we are targeting those programs that will be of benefit to our core mission of agricultural operations, such as farming and ranching. The four, 1-year programs are:

Based on need, STAR disburses a monthly stipend from $250, up to $500/mo., directly to each student to assist with general expenses to allow them to focus on their chosen certificate program.
As long as the student maintains a 2.5 GPA and has a solid attendance record, the payments are disbursed on a monthly basis. This payment arrangement, versus a lump sum cash distribution, helps to ensure the continued active participation of the students.
Currently, of these four programs at Laredo College, 54.9% of the students are economically disadvantaged and qualify for financial aid. Our program focuses on those students with the greatest financial need, for which grants that cover tuition and
books are not enough aid to allow for a good chance of student success. students in our program are those who are in the lower half of this group.

The target
Current Student Demographics

Median Monthly Stipend from STAR $350 per student

The goal of our program is to provide additional assistance in the form of a monthly stipend to help with monthly expenses. Otherwise, this financial burden may prohibit the students from completing their certificate training.

All of the students feel that they must help out with family living expenses and their personal obligations. The majority of the students give the money to their parents to assist with utilities, groceries, and transportation.

In one case, the student travels more than 100 miles per day, which is over $60 per week in fuel cost, not to mention maintenance and wear and tear on the vehicle.

Another example, unfortunately, is a child support obligation that was proving to be a problem.

Our monthly assistance is proving to be an essential component in the success of the students and is enabling them to continue with their education. Our long-term goal is to support a total of 51 students through their one-year programs.

The STAR program incentivizes students to remain with their respective programs and targets those with the greatest financial need. Our workforce development program, structured in this manner and combined with job placement assistance, will prove to be a long-term success for the community

At an average cost of $3,150 per student, the total annual program cost will be $160,650.00 at our goal level of 51 students.

Donations of any amount are encouraged; single student sponsorship is an option.