Like most college students, Kaniya Warren wants to go places.
She wants to enter into a career in nursing, and she wants to visit other countries.
“It was always my dream to study abroad,” the UNC Greensboro student says. “Despite COVID setting that back, I waited patiently and weighed my options. I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to afford it, but with the help of faculty from the International Programs Center and my professors, I achieved my goal of studying Spanish in Spain.”
COVID-19 was not the only peak she had to scale for her dream college experience. Like many students and their families, the Warrens first had to discuss whether they could afford college. Fortunately, she met the qualifications to receive a Pell Grant.
Pell Grant turns 50
This year marks 50 years since the creation of the Pell Grant, which is awarded to college students based on their household income.
“It’s a need-based grant,” says Dr. Andrew Hamilton, associate vice provost and dean of undergraduate studies. “We’ve seen that student population grow a lot here at UNCG in the last few years – from roughly 35 percent to close to 50 percent.”
Dr. Hamilton says students who qualify may be awarded up to $6,500. “That’s a significant amount of money against the cost of education.”
Warren learned about the Pell Grant while her family did FAFSA for her first year at UNCG. “I feared I would not be able to afford college because of the cost,” she says. So, she applied with UNCG Guarantee, which provides students with a financial aid package in order to graduate without debt.
It’s a key part of UNCG’s mission to make a college degree accessible to more people.
“As far as research universities go nationally, we have a very large population of students from underrepresented backgrounds as well as students who are Pell eligible,” says Dr. Hamilton.
Figuring out who is Pell eligible is not as easy as punching numbers into a calculator. Federal officials consider many factors together, such as the number of children in the family who are in higher education.
Most common financial questions
“About half of our students are first generation college students,” says Dr. Hamilton. “They don’t have parents who’ve navigated the landscape before.”
Some of the most common questions he hears from families are how to qualify and whether or not they have to pay back a Pell Grant.
“We normally offer students a package of aid,” he says, “Some of which are grants, some of which are loans, some of which comes from the state, and some are institutional dollars that come in various flavors. What we try to do is build the best possible package for each student. So that they can afford to be here and flourish, and not have to work a bunch of hours rather than studying.”
To guide families’ research into the different forms of financial aid, UNCG created a website on Spartan Central to help explain the difference between grants and loans, which forms of aid are best suited for their circumstances, and how much they can expect to pay out of pocket.
With help from the Pell Grant and UNCG Guarantee, Warren is well on her way to going places with much of her tuition already paid off. She is on track to receive her nursing degree in Spring 2024 with a minor in Spanish.
Her dream career would combine her passion for service with more opportunities to travel.
“I want to work in maternal-child health while advocating for women’s health globally,” she says. “I would also like to travel and work in a Spanish-speaking country.”
Story by Janet Imrick, University Communications
Photography courtesy of Kaniya Warren
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