“She marked the time with her son’s birthdays, vowing to complete her degree before he turned five.” Sometimes all it takes is a little extra support.That’s why Portland State is expanding scholarships and emergency hardship funds to clear the way for students like Sierra to return and graduate. WHEN SIERRA decided to go back to PSU in 2021, she had a major obstacle: She couldn’t register for classes because she still owed PSU $1,500, money she didn’t have in her tight family budget. Her advisor told her about the Robert Mercer College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Last Mile award, a last-resort funding source to help students pay for their final credits and graduate.The fund is made up of mostly small donations in honor of Robert Mercer, a retired assistant dean who created it in 2013. Since then, the award has helped 71 students finish their degrees. Sierra was relieved when she learned the award would cover her debt and remaining classes. It was “a huge, huge blessing,” she said. She was nervous about juggling the demands of school, family and her new full-time job as an operations manager, working in local government. But she did it, finally receiving her degree in December. “I really just powered through,” she said. “It was hard, but it was something I had to do.There was no second chance. Someone else was paying for me to finish. It was all or nothing.” The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences’ Robert Mercer Last Mile fund and others like it are “tremendous tools,” said Carol Gabrielli, the college’s director of student success. She has seen an uptick in financial need from students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Job losses, health problems, family caregiving and other challenges have stretched their already thin resources. “Many students are calling me out of enormous desperation—a Hail Mary of sorts—and this award catapults them into a whole other dimension of possibility,” she said. “It really transforms their lives.” PSU is building on the success of the Last Mile fund with a strategic investment of $1 million in a new Finish Line project for students throughout the University who are at risk of not graduating during the pandemic. The need is so great that a record number of students applied for emergency funds during the 2020-21 school year, and donors stepped up to help.The Portland State University Foundation gave out more than $600,000 in hardship funds to 726 students for housing, food, medical care, transportation and other immediate needs. Student Ben Steward prepares medicinal plants in the family drying room (previous page). Sierra T. '21 at PSU's Urban Plaza (this page). Steward on the land in Roseburg and at home with his wife and daughters (right). Photos by NASHCO.
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