May 2025

On average, about 10% of Gateway students end the semester with debts. By offering various microgrants of only a few hundred dollars to our students facing debt at the end of the semester, including underserved populations like Black (15.1%) and Hispanic (10.4%) students, we will reach students who have the potential to prematurely end their post-secondary education due to financial hardship. Supporting these students during difficult life circumstances will put them back on the path to graduation and ultimately the path to becoming members of our Southeast Wisconsin workforce.

Goal Statement

Gateway will introduce new microgrants to support students with unexpected financial circumstances that will help keep them in college and on the path to graduation.

Work To Date

To fund microgrants, we have secured a third-party grant from the Kloss Foundation for $25,000, which will run our pilot Completion Grant program starting in the Fall 2024 Semester. This will not require students to apply and will be proactively awarded to students that meet the pre-set eligibility criteria (6 or less credits remaining, cumulative GPA of 2.0 or higher and debt under $1,500).

Additionally, Fresh Start to Finish Program grants and Student Emergency Grants continue to be available. Fresh Start to Finish gives students an opportunity to pay off past debts while attending Gateway through re-enrollment microgrants, and one-time Emergency Grants of $500 are available to students facing unexpected, unanticipated events that could derail them from graduation at Gateway.

Short-Term Goals

Moving forward, the college and the Gateway Technical College Foundation will secure sustainable funding to continue the support of microgrants, while exploring the introduction of other microgrants that could support students in innovative ways. Our goal is to maximize the use of all funding available to support students. For example, the Gateway Foundation only utilized 70% of available Emergency Grant funding in 2023, and we hope to increase the overall funding and the amount of students supported through this funding in the future.

Questions? Please email Breezann Warnock at warnockb@gtc.edu.

Committee Members

Breezann Warnock (Committee Lead) – Director, Student Accounts
Travis Jansen – Registrar
Jennifer Charpentier – Executive Director, Foundation
Pamela Lowrey – Director, Student Financial Aid
Julie Terasek – Manager, Military & Veteran Education Benefits
Danyanna Dunn – Student Support Specialist - Multicultural Program