The Coordinating Commission distributed more than $220,000 in scholarship funds to more than 300 college students as part of the new ACE Plus Scholarship program. The Commission distributed the funds in July and August for the current academic year.
The ACE Plus Scholarship is awarded to full-time college students who received an ACE Scholarship in high school. The ACE Scholarship, created in 2007, pays tuition and mandatory fees for qualified, low-income high school students to enroll in college courses from eligible Nebraska's colleges or universities, either through dual-enrollment or early enrollment agreements with these institutions.
The ACE Plus Scholarship provides a $500 scholarship for the first year a student attends college full time and a $1,250 scholarship for the second year. To be eligible for the award, a student must:
- Have received a Nebraska ACE Scholarship;
- Have received a grade point average of 2.0 or better on a 4.0 scale for all completed ACE-funded courses taken while in high school; and
- Be enrolled in a postsecondary educational institution as a full-time student.
The ACE Plus Scholarship program was developed by the Coordinating Commission and is funded by the federal College Access Challenge Grant (CACG). Katherine Green coordinates both the CACG and ACE Plus programs for the Commission. She presented on the first year of the ACE Plus program - including the demographics of the recipients and where they attend school - at the Commission's Sept. 29 meeting