Uncle Sam’s stimulus grants benefits students

NEW YORK, NY – As students walk to and from class, Renata Silverio, a student worker is busy making copies and filing papers behind a closed door.


Silverio, a senior at Technical Career Institutes' College of Technology, is just one of the students who earned a work study job last year.


"It is a great pleasure for me to be working here," said Silverio "I have learned a lot while I am here."


In 2009, Technical Career Institutes (TCI) received a total of $163,000 from the stimulus bill.  These funds allowed TCI to offer students more funds for books and car fare.


According to recovery.gov, TCI was able to create 10 work study jobs with the funds that they received from Feb. 17 to Dec. 31, 2009.  Each work study job pays the student $7.25 per hour up to 20 hours each week for working at the school. 

"The stimulus money gave us the capability of giving the students more money," said Cynthia Fekaris, vice president of student financial services at Technical Career Institutes.  "We were also able to hire more students under the federal work study program."


According to Fekaris, all of the funds TCI received from the stimulus bill go to the students.


"Here our policy is always to give it to the students," said Fekaris.  "We farm it out right away."


Finding funding after the stimulus
TCI is coming up with new ways to maintain the student work force, now that they have completed the stimulus program and are no longer receiving funds.

Fekaris said TCI is offering more institutional grants to students to help maintain the grant and work study programs.


Institutional grants are college provided grants that help students pay for the extra expenses that are not covered by loans, student earnings and student income, according to the Federal Student Aid web site.

Among these institutional grants offered by TCI is the "Success Grant."  This grant encourages students to take classes over the summer to finish school quicker.


Any full-time student that has 85 percent attendance over the summer will receive an extra $400 that will help the student pay for books and car fare.


The Success Grant's purpose, according to TCI's web site is to reward "students with excellent attendance, as well as motivating all students to go to class." 

According to Fekaris, many of the students are unemployed.  TCI encourages students to graduate as soon as possible so they can find permanent jobs. 

Last spring more than one hundred students qualified for the Success Grant.

    
As Silverio heads back to work, she contemplates how being a work study for the past year will affect her future.


"It's been beneficial because I could get a job, a good job here and I have learned a lot," said Silverio, "it could even help me in another job."