Metro State received word on Monday that it will receive a $25,000 grant from the Colorado Department of Higher Education (DHE) to help re-enroll adults who have attended Metro State but did not complete their degrees.

Metro State will use the grant to launch a recruitment campaign targeting “ready adults” who attended Metro State, but for one reason or another did not graduate. Through advertising and direct mailings, the College will invite the former students to return and complete their degrees through its Individualized Degree Program (IDP).

The College plans to work with students who respond to the outreach, assessing their academic and financial needs and developing a degree plan for graduation. Additionally, Metro State will work to ensure that the returning students have access to on-campus daycare; an emergency fund for items not otherwise covered by financial aid; academic support including tutoring, counseling and peer support groups; and career services and internship opportunities.

Director of the Center for Individualized Learning Elizabeth Parmelee, who wrote the proposal for the grant, says, “This program will efficiently and effectively help students complete their degrees, whether through their original major or through IDP.” Parmelee adds that IDP is an option that often works well for returning students who find that either the degree requirements for their program have changed since they left the College, or their credits never really fit into one particular program in the first place.

The DHE has identified 2,300 students who left Metro State since 2002 with at least 90 credit hours but not a degree, which is about one third of the total in the state (7,600).

“One of the things we’ve found working with these returning students,” Parmelee said, “ is that the first few months can be the most challenging” as students navigate the paperwork and logistical steps necessary to re-enter a degree program. “(Under the DHE grant,) we’ll work to smooth the path for them.”

Parmelee said that the program includes a research element, in which her office will survey returning students about why they left and what their challenges are in returning. “In this way, we hope to further increase retention and promote re-entry,” she adds.

Metro State is one of four institutions receiving $25,000 each from the DHE to launch pilot programs for adult and Latino students. The University of Colorado at Boulder and Adams State College received grants in the area of recruiting adult learners, while the University of Northern Colorado’s grant is to recruit Latino students, particularly in science, technology and mathematics.