St. Louis Community College and The PepsiCo Foundation on Wednesday announced launch of the Uplift Scholarship Program, which offers financial support for Black and Hispanic students pursuing two-year degrees and professional certificate programs.
Uplift also provides students with success coaches, access to emergency grants, and financial literacy courses.
“This is a wonderful scholarship opportunity for students at St. Louis Community College. It’s also a great example of opening more pathways to good paying, in-demand careers in the region. It’s important that the College continue to work to reduce racial and wealth gap barriers in our communities,” said Jeff L. Pittman, St. Louis Community College chancellor.
Tiffany Davis, STLCC director of workforce and talent development, STLCC said community partnerships “are critical for our students, our future workforce and for our region.”
“PepsiCo’s commitment will allow us to connect students to opportunity and employers to trained talent.”
Uplift promotes access to education advancement by addressing obstacles that disproportionately impact Black and Hispanic students’ educational and professional journeys, according to Pittman. These include retention, completion, and workforce readiness.
“The Uplift program at St. Louis Community College aims to guide students to jobs in high-growth industries including information technology, advanced manufacturing and transportation.” Pittman said.
“Higher education is the single most important tool we have for addressing economic and opportunity inequality. But just entering college is not enough,” C.D. Glin, global head of philanthropy, PepsiCo, and vice president, The PepsiCo Foundation said in a release.
“Through the Uplift scholarship, The PepsiCo Foundation and St. Louis Community College are working to ensure Black and Hispanic students not only have a
chance to get into college but have access to critical resources to secure their diplomas and embark on meaningful careers.”
The Uplift Scholarship program is part of a $40 million commitment to education by the foundation, and Uplift is offered at 20 U.S. community colleges. Th foundation’s goal is to provide 4,000 scholarships over five years.
New and current STLCC students can apply for the scholarship, which also includes support for programs that are not currently covered by federal student aid.
Scholarship applications for summer and fall 2022 semesters will be accepted beginning May 2 and eligible students can apply directly at stlcc.academicworks.com.
