Complete Your Degree Program

The Foundation’s board began an in-depth look at our scholarship program’s impact in 2019, including how to support adult learners. The Complete Your Degree (CYD) program, pioneered by St. Clair Community Foundation, is a way to redefine and reimagine how scholarship assets are used to support the continuing education of young adults. Our goal is to help local adults achieve their degrees and credentials to increase their household prosperity while fostering a more vibrant economy and meeting the employment skill gap in Oceana County.

Working closely with multiple organizations throughout our region, and specifically with our friends and partners at Muskegon and West Shore Community Colleges, CYD is a highly competitive needs-based scholarship that also provides financial support for a wide range of “life needs” to adult learners accepted into the program. Together with the state’s Futures for Frontliners, MI Reconnect programs, or other resources available to students, CYD will cover the full cost of tuition at MCC or WSCC. Funding for life needs will be above and beyond providing last-dollars-in money to cover tuition, books, and related supplies for students at MCC/WSCC. Life needs support will include, but not be limited to, helping young adults overcome temporary obstacles such as food, clothing, medical care, transportation, daycare, and housing.

In establishing a Complete Your Degree program in Oceana County, four applicants were accepted into the initial cohort in Fall 2022. In Winter 2023, four more students were accepted into the program. CYD will provide competitive needs-based scholarships, which will cover the full cost of tuition at one of our local community colleges. A success coach, employed by the Foundation, will walk alongside students to provide extra support to ensure CYD students thrive. For more information, check our CYD Info Sheet. If you are interested in supporting or learning more about this initiative, contact Hannah Naples or Tammy Carey.

You can help support Oceana’s adult learners by making an online gift to the Complete Your Degree Program Fund here. 

 

  • For the Fall 2023 cohort, the Complete Your Degree application portal will open on July 18.

    The CYD program has the following criteria and preferences:

    • Young adults who have already completed some college credits at MCC/WSCC or another college, but who are at risk of not completing their college education due to life needs and obstacles
    • Young adults who previously tried college or university at a four-year institution
    • Young adults who graduated from high school within the last several years, but who never tried college before
    • Young adults who are single parents; those who would be first generation college graduates; those from single parent families; low-income; minority; TIP eligible (Tuition Incentive Program)

    Instructions for our scholarship portal can be found here: CYD Instructions

    You can apply for CYD’s Fall 2023 cohort today at goapply2.akoyago.com/OCEANA !  Once accepted into the program, students can access renewable academic scholarships, emergency aid funding for barriers (like childcare, food, medical care, transportation needs), and support from a Success Coach.

  • The Complete Your Degree program is a project of the Community Foundation for Oceana County and is supported by these donors and endowed Foundation funds:

    • Hager-Lacey Memorial Scholarship Fund
    • ​Helen Hutt Scholarship Fund
    • ​Randall & Linda Wagner Family Fund
    • ​Phillip & Cathy Brown
    • ​LaBarge-Beeber Family Fund
    • ​Bluhm-Lockwood Trust Fund 
    • ​Mears United Methodist Church
    • Trinity Health West MI Impact Grant Program
    • William R Lathers Foundation Fund
    • Dan & Laura Muirhead Fund
    • Memorial donations in honor of Kathy Owens​

    You can help support Oceana’s adult learners by making an online gift to the Complete Your Degree Program Fund here. 

     

  • Adult student scholarships are offered on a rolling basis to Oceana County residents (or residents of an Oceana-based school district) who have been out of high school for at least one year and/or have a gap in their post-secondary education.  Adult students are often (but not always) prospective undergraduate students who are 25 years of age or older. Adult students may also have other identifying criteria, such as full-time employment, parenthood, care of elderly parents, or prior military service.

    Scholarship applications will be accepted and reviewed on a rolling basis until resources are depleted.

    Scholarship Application is closed at this time, we are directing all scholars to apply to our CYD program  

    Questions?  Call Hannah Naples, 231.869.3377, or e-mail hannah@oceanafoundation.org. Applicants should expect to hear from the Foundation within 30 days of submitting their application.

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