Through the period of Feb. 2020 to Feb. 2021, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi and Del Mar College partnered to share a $650,000 Texas Reskilling Support Fund Grant to help students from each of these colleges who dropped out of study within six months to a year due to COVID-19.

TAMU-CC and DMC collaborated to submit their proposal to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board in which they were able to get funded for the program. The money also happens to be a part of the last round of the CARES Act from 2020.

This grant is designed to support students who are placed into three different groups such as DMC students in area of studies that are workforce skill orientated, TAMU-CC students who are one year away from graduating and haven’t been enrolled in at least six months as well as students who are enrolled at DMC that are a semester or a year from finishing an associate degree which would allow them to transfer to TAMU-CC to complete their baccalaureate degree.

$50,000 of the money will go directly to an outreach coordinator that will get into contact with students who are no longer enrolled, giving them the opportunity to join the program to complete a degree that is in the high demand workforce. Students will also have access to the food pantry, tutoring, disability services and more.

Andy Benoit, Vice President of Enrollment Management at TAMU-CC, said that the students are important to them along with their success and he demonstrated they’re willing to do anything for them to be able to achieve their goals despite challenges they may face with everything going on during this pandemic. Benoit encourages anyone who qualifies for this type of assistance to get into contact with the financial aid office if they need advice.

“We’ve been very committed to every dollar we can find for our students,” said Benoit, “We written all kinds of different grants, every time we can find money on a table from a different source to be able to help our students, we do that. We know that a lot of our student over the course of the last year or so have had various effects with regards to their enrollment, some have been challenge with their jobs or other things that they had to pay for.”

Dr. Rito Silva, Vice President of Student Affairs at DMC, is thrilled to partner with TAMU-CC and have the opportunity to help their students in this region for their education. Silva mentioned how it’ll benefit students with the pandemic going on to provide extra assistance for them. “Our friend TAMU-CC has always been excellent and I think the region, we need to maintain the open collaboration between us. It’s important for our region that we continue to do that. This is just another example when we collaborate. It’s a win win for all of us especially for our students to come back. Not only do we help them we also help their family and while we do that we approve the quality of life in our region.”

For more information on how students can apply, contact the financial aid office at either of these colleges for additional information about the requirements.