VSAC to offer stipends to help poorer high schoolers take college courses; Idle-Free VT gets $17,500 grant

Vermont Student Assistance Corp. will administer a new program that provides $50,000 in stipends this year to help low-income high school students cover the costs of books, fees and travel associated with dual enrollment courses.

Vermont’s dual enrollment program allows high school students to take two college courses tuition-free while still in high school. Since its inception, Vermont’s dual enrollment program has more than doubled from 642 participants to more than 1,600 last year. Dual enrollment courses are offered on college campuses, online or on-site at a participating high school.

Students enrolled in dual enrollment who are also eligible for free- and reduced-price lunch and who need additional financial assistance to cover the costs of books, fees or travel will be automatically considered for an annual stipend of $150 to assist with these costs.

Funds will be available on a first-come, first-served basis.

For more information on the dual enrollment program and obtaining a voucher, visit http://vtdualenrollment.org/.

“The legislature has acted decisively to the demand for dual enrollment classes by providing this incentive to those students who may need additional financial assistance to realize the dream of college,” said Scott Giles, president and CEO of VSAC.

Vermont Student Assistance Corp. is a public, nonprofit agency established by the Vermont Legislature in 1965 to help Vermonters plan and pay for education or training beyond high school. For more information about VSAC, go to at www.vsac.org or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/VermontStudentAssistanceCorporation.

$17,500 grant help raise awareness about vehicle idling around schools

Bristol
The High Meadows Fund, a Middlebury-based foundation, has awarded Idle-Free VT Inc. a grant of $17,500 to implement Vermont Idle-Free Schools. Idle-Free VT director Wayne Michaud of Bristol is coordinating the statewide project to raise awareness of unnecessary vehicle idling in the school community to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, conserve energy and protect student health.

Young drivers (and the adults around them) will learn to be fuel-efficient, environmentally responsible drivers. The project also seeks to increase the number of Vermont schools with official no-idling guidelines to help promote healthy school environments. Vermont Idle-Free Schools runs from September 2014 to August 2015.

Vermont Idle-Free Schools will work with health and science teachers, environmental club advisors, and driver educators – as well as others in the school community – to conduct 60 idling awareness and green driving classroom sessions for approximately 800 students from 5th grade to middle and high school levels. Several different lesson plans are offered. Five of these schools are being preselected for involvement in special long term idling study and measuring campaigns.

Vermont Idle-Free Schools will work with supervisory unions and school districts to obtain 35 school no-idling policies, procedures, or handbook rules.

Project resources and materials include the Vermont Idle-Free Schools webpages, toolkits, information handouts, and no idling signs.

Visit idlefreevt.org for more details.