- [Narrator] Funding for this program is provided in part by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.

(soft music) - R-Town, the show about Rochester, learns about how our local community college is supporting student needs and we hear about a large donation recently made to the local Ronald McDonald House, all that and so much more coming up next on R-Town, the show about Rochester.

(jazzy upbeat music) Coming to you from 125 Live in Rochester, Minnesota, R-Town.

(jazzy upbeat music continues) We are joined today by Kristin Mannix, RCTC Foundation Advancement Director here to tell us more about how the foundation is supporting student needs and access to education.

Welcome to R-Town, Kristin.

- Ah, good afternoon.

So lovely to see you.

- Well I think many community members may be aware of RCTC, obviously as an institution in our community, but can you tell us a little bit about what RCTC is?

- Sure, so RCTC is our community's college.

We are a community college that provides an opportunity and access for an affordable education.

And we are here to support students from all ages and stages in their lives to ensure they get the education that they want to lead them towards their goals and dreams.

- How does RCTC provide opportunities for students in our community to go to college and have that access?

- Many people are aware that a college education is becoming increasingly unaffordable for a large number of Americans.

And one of the things that's a hallmark of what RCTC does is provide a very affordable education.

And in addition to being one of the most low cost opportunities to get an education, we also provide an extensive collection of scholarships to help students who have very high financial need to remove that barrier for them to getting an education.

- What role does the RCTC Foundation play in all this?

- Well, we really are here to partner with our community.

This could be individuals who are passionate about helping students get the same opportunity, have an education that they had, could be industries who are seeing a worker shortage and want to make sure there are skilled workers who can come and work in their business, can be service organizations who are really about ensuring that we have leaders in our community that are dedicated to serving our community in voluntary and in professional capacities.

- Can you tell us a little bit about your scholarship program and what it offers and how that program is funded itself?

- Fantastic, I love to answer this question.

Our scholarships, for the most part are funded by individuals, organizations, and service organizations.

We receive a wide variety of donations and we put those scholarships to work in the areas that are most meaningful for our donors.

I often refer to it as a patchwork quilt.

So we offer about 350 scholarships.

The bulk of those are given by private individuals who are passionate about serving students that maybe reflect what their college experience was like.

So they might have had, you know, difficult financial burdens to overcome.

They might have returned to work after another career or they might be straight out of school and want to encourage students to shoot for dream careers in nursing or engineering or whatever it is.

They bring their passions for the students that they want to help and they're able to set parameters in their scholarships that can help us match up the students that they want to help with the students who have need and opportunity at the college.

So a lot of our scholarships are given in that way and we are really grateful to those folks who do that, our goal is to ensure that they are having a very meaningful connection with the students that they meet and really have an opportunity to see those students succeed.

We also have some scholarship funds which are not tied to specific programs or not tied to specific backgrounds where we are able to ensure that students who don't fit into one of those specific scholarships still have a great opportunity to go to college.

Our general RCTC Foundation Scholarship Fund helps us ensure that students who have a desire to go to college can have their needs met even if there isn't a private individual or organizational scholarship available to them.

We offer 350 scholarships and we're awarding almost half a million dollars.

But it's, even with all that, we still have a great number of students who do not receive a scholarship.

Our application window opens March 10th and runs to April 13th and that's for our fall and spring scholarships in this, and we will probably get between 1,000 and 1,200 scholarship applications and we fund about 350 of those.

So we know the need continues to be great and we're really grateful for everyone who partners with us, but we know there's still a great deal of unmet need out there in the community and these scholarships, most importantly, what they provide for students is the opportunity to have access to a college education that they might not have because of their financial situation or other barriers that they might face.

- Thank you for sharing that.

You've mentioned 350 scholarships, it's quite a bit and I remember, you know, just being on the other side of that, applying to college and you know, navigating that.

How do you advise students to navigate-- - I'm so glad you asked!

- [Nicole] The scholarship application?

- So we are very lucky in that what we use is a software where students complete one application and then the software sifts through all 350 scholarships and identifies this student is eligible for these 15 scholarships.

This student is eligible for these 20 scholarships and it helps them to kind of complete their application to receive the individual scholarships that we offer.

We find most students spend an hour writing their application.

It's not a huge barrier, and for some of our students it can still be daunting.

So we will offer Zoom workshops.

We will encourage students to meet with a tutoring center to help them, the learning center, to help them work on their essay portion of what they have to do.

Our whole goal is to reduce the barriers for students to get their applications in 'cause unfortunately, if they don't submit an application it's very hard for us to award them a scholarship.

But we try to make the, we try to do the work on the backend so they can just focus on telling us their story.

- Excellent.

And in terms of those scholarships, are there, well, what percentage of the student body is there sort of being helped along by a scholarship?

- So it's not as many as we'd like, okay?

So RCTC enrollment will vary, but we're often seeing, you know, around 6,000 students, a number of them part-time, a number of them full-time.

So that 350 isn't really as far as we would like to go in order to be able to help our students.

But we have a very focused effort on trying to reach out to students that might have barriers.

So we reach out to high school counselors, reach out to service organizations, nonprofits in town, encouraging them to have students apply.

We work with our financial aid office to make sure if we're hearing from students that are saying they're having a difficult time affording college, that they complete their application.

But again, I look at it and I say, we have so many students that are identifying that attending college without a scholarship is a struggle, that we really would love to grow what we're doing in this area.

But we're very grateful for the progress we have made to be able to offer what we do.

I think one of the things that when we talk about our students and our students' needs, we often serve a group of students that may not have other opportunities to go to college.

50% of our students are first generation college students.

That means their parents did not get a bachelor's, they are the first ones to try and navigate this experience and they may not have parents who are poking them on the shoulder and say, "Complete the scholarship application."

About 60% of the students that apply for FAFSA are Pell eligible.

So that goes to show a lot of the students that we have do have financial need and getting a Pell grant or getting a scholarship from the foundation is pretty essential for them to be able to afford college.

And then we did some separate surveying and identified that 38% of our students report having an insecurity in their basic needs.

So that could be food insecurity or it could be housing insecurity.

And when we see our scholarship applications, we can see that play out in each student's lives very differently.

I remember reading a student's scholarship application and them talking about getting to their fridge at the end of the day and thinking, "I really want to study "but I am so hungry."

And you're thinking how do you prioritize your long-term future of going through these classes and getting the degree when your basic needs aren't being met?

And we are very lucky that we have had some generous community partners that have supported our on-campus food pantry so that students who are struggling with food insecurity can come in and get a bag of groceries a week and they can then use that to help them focus their efforts on school instead of "How do I get a meal on the table?"

And, you know, those stories for me are so different than what my college education experience was like.

It really opens my eyes to the complexity of circumstances that a lot of our students face.

I cannot speak for our whole student scholarship applicants.

We have people from all sorts of different walks of life, but we do have scholarships where people are, have left a partner because of domestic abuse and they find themselves trying to afford housing, trying to manage childcare without a support network.

We'll often find that we have students who are trying to work a full-time job and juggle their classes and make sure they're doing a good enough job to stay in school.

So when we can put a scholarship in their hands, it takes some of the burden and some of the worry off for them and ensures that they can focus on their long-term success by getting a college education.

- Yeah, thank you for sharing that.

I think, you know, oftentimes the focus ends up being on, alright, let's get students into the education, let's get them into higher ed.

And you know, scholarships are such a big part of that, but this story that you're sharing too about the needs that continue while they're getting that education as being really important as well.

Within the scholarship program you have these 350 scholarships.

Can you tell us a little bit specifically about the OAKS Scholarships and what they provide?

- Sure.

This is one of my favorites.

The OAKS Scholarship has been around for 25 years.

In its first days it was called the Beat the Odds Scholarship.

And it was really identifying students who had to overcome obstacles even to get the chance to apply for college.

In, you'll have to forgive me, 2018, 2019, the committee that organized that identified that most of the students who are facing these obstacles were coming to RCTC because we were the most affordable and accessible option for many students.

And so that program came to RCTC and became the OAKS Scholarship, which stands for Overcoming Adversity Keeping Strong.

And we have had incredible students apply for this.

We often get between 20 to 40 applications of people who are nominated by people in their community for their resilience and their persistence in terms of getting their education.

And I could tell you stories, ugh, the stories we have.

So one of my favorites is actually about someone who I didn't realize was an OAKS recipient and they had a difficult childhood.

They'd spent time homeless, their parents struggled with medical conditions and they had to work through most of their high school education to pay the fundamental bills that their family needed to survive.

And that meant their attendance at high school was very spotty, but their hard work and efforts caught the attention of a counselor who nominated them for this award and they received a $2,500 scholarship pay for their first year of college education at RCTC.

And they've gone on to become a nurse, they've gone on to excel in their field.

And then I met this person socially and we were talking a little bit about the impact of this and this scholarship has enabled her not only to have this successful career, but also to provide this sort of stability and opportunity for her family that she didn't have.

And this opportunity to invest in others in the same way.

Really important to her because it's not only about providing the opportunity, it's ensuring that students have the aspiration and the support to be successful when it seems like they have to overcome a lot just to get the chance to go to college.

- Oh, thank you for sharing, that's a really powerful story.

Can you tell us a little bit about this year's recipients?

- Well, so this year we had Six OAKS recipients and they represent a broad cross section of our community.

This includes folks who are first generation immigrants here to the US.

Idris is one of our recipients and he had been going to school and his school that he was attending was burned down and the war and instability in his home country led him here to Rochester.

And so his opportunity to come and study nursing here is really about fulfilling a dream that has been thwarted along the way by global events far outside of his control and to come and do that.

But first he had to master the language with support from people in English language learning programs.

And then he had to master the technical language of the nursing school to ensure that he was able to comprehend all that technical language and put, and he has a incredible dream of becoming a cardiac nurse and we are really here to support him and encourage him on the way to do that.

- Thank you for sharing that story as well.

We talked a little bit the students facing a number of needs and obstacles while in college.

Can you share other ways that the foundation continues to support those needs for students?

- So we do have our Hive Supply, which is our RCTC is the yellow Jackets, everything is bee-themed.

The Hive Supply is our on-campus food pantry and we provide that support.

We help to ensure that there is food in that pantry for students to have access to.

In addition, we support student emergency loans.

You'd be surprised how many students have to stop coming to school 'cause they can't afford to get their car repaired or they have a medical bill that they can't pay off and they need to pick up extra hours and shifts to be able to get out of debt.

So those emergency loans help students to oversee those unbudgeted expenses that might keep them from being able to be successful.

We also support emergency counseling at the college.

So if someone is experiencing a mental health crisis, regardless of their insurance, we help to ensure they have access to a counselor to support them.

Those are really our student emergency needs and we call that our YES fund, Yellow-jacket Emergency support, but we also do other things that help to ensure student success.

So one of the challenges that many community colleges face is that our funding model has not grown to address the needs that we have.

And so we also are receiving funds to ensure our program excellence remains top tier.

So students come out with a great college education and this includes ensuring students have access to tutoring supports.

It ensures we are buying cutting edge equipment so that if you're learning a particular technical skill, you're learning on what you're gonna see in the workplace.

We also can invest in extra student learning opportunities, whether they're internships or other things to ensure students come out really ready to work or ready to move on to their four year institution.

And we would love to do more to support that area because we often find scholarships impact one student at a time.

But when we invest in program supports like the Hive Supply or like the tutoring programs or investing in equipment that all of our students get to use, the whole program benefits all of the students from those who are the most needy to those that are able to afford a college education.

They all get the benefit of those investments.

- Wonderful, well thank you so much Kristin, for joining us.

Thank you for sharing all this wonderful work that the foundation's doing and we hope to catch up with you another time.

- Fantastic.

Thank you so much.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) - Be sure to stick around, we have much more coming your way on R-Town.

We learn how the Ronald McDonald's House hopes to make use of a recent donation of $250,000.

(soft music) (soft music continues) (soft music continues) (soft music continues) - Yeah, so this gift from the Astrup Family Foundation, we've been working with them throughout the years.

They've been longtime supporters of the House and we found out this fall that the Family Foundation had considered and made a decision on a significant gift for the organization.

- This gift has been really transformational here at the House.

Their investment and the trust that they have made in our organization provides a foundation of support for our families here at the house.

(soft music) (soft music continues) (soft music continues) Our relationship with the a Astrup Family Foundation really started through Corinne Astrup, and that is Mom to Susan Lundquist and she was a long time supporter of our organization, very generous and kind, and upon her husband's passing, upon Leonard's passing, their family started the Astrup Family Foundation.

And it was after Corinne's passing that I really got to know Susan and her family and being able to work with them to connect their family and continue Corinne and Leonard's legacy here at the Ronald McDonald House has just been such a rewarding experience.

- It is one of the more inspiring gifts that we've received outside of our capital campaigns.

This is right up there as one of the top gifts that we've ever received.

- It's incredibly exciting.

I think it's exciting because seeing a family that is so invested, that cares so deeply about the people that walk through our doors, it's a gift of love.

It's a gift of hope and comfort, and that's really what it provides for our families here.

The Astrup family coming forward with this transformational gift not only allows us to have a roof over people's heads and provide them with meals, but it's that connection that happens between fellow guest families when they're here at the house.

(soft music) ♪ I'm home ♪ ♪ I'm home wherever you and me are going ♪ ♪ Oh I'm home ♪ ♪ I'm home ♪ ♪ Wherever you and me are going ♪ (soft music continues) ♪ When you're sailing on the seas ♪ ♪ When you're floating on the breeze ♪ ♪ When you come home, come to me ♪ ♪ When you come home, come to me ♪ (soft music fading out) - I would say my connection started in very early days.

So I actually had to come over to Rochester as a youth to have open heart surgery.

So I got to know how important the care here and the community is in Rochester, I will share, you know, a healthcare hospitality house like this, I've sat with a parent who had to stay in a very similar type house like this, but for adults for nearly three and a half months.

And so you really, I've gotten to really appreciate what these spaces mean for families and as much as what the kids need, what the families and the parents need while they're here.

(cars driving in slush) - Our mission at its core is really just removing barriers for families to be able to get the healthcare that their children need.

It's taking away the worry of where they're gonna sleep or shower.

It's relieving the financial stress of a hotel or travel expenses.

When a family comes here, they're away, they're removed from their entire social network, their family, their friends, the people that are rallying around them to support them through childhood illness and all of the implications that come with that.

But when those families come here to the Ronald McDonald House, they're immersed in that community and they find that here at the Ronald McDonald House as well.

- We have patients that are receiving medical care for a variety of reasons.

So we have children that are in active cancer treatment.

We have children that are here for post followup treatment.

We have kiddos that are here for transplant.

Last year we had 12 children in the house that received heart transplants alone.

- A little girl put it perfectly for me the other day, we were talking about how she's been doing and her healthcare journey and she had a kidney transplant not long ago.

They come here from Florida and they've been here for about two months already and they were here for about four months over the summer and she put it just like this.

She said, "When I have to come to Rochester "and I get to stay at the Ronald McDonald House, "it helps me feel better."

(soft music) ♪ Know your long days work is done ♪ (soft music continues) ♪ Oh I'm home ♪ ♪ Home wherever you and me are going ♪ ♪ Oh I'm home ♪ ♪ Home wherever ♪ ♪ You and me and going ♪ (soft music continues) (soft music continues) (soft music continues) (soft music fades out) (no audio) - [Narrator] For more information about this story and other R-Town features, connect with us on Facebook, Twitter @KSMQ #RTown, or ksmq.org/rtown.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) - Thank you for joining us today.

I hope you learned as much as I did about all that's going on in our city and the wonderful people making it happen.

For more content produced right here in Rochester, please be sure to check us out on Facebook and Twitter at #rtown.

I'm Nicole Nfonoyim-Hara, host of R Town, the show about Rochester.

We'll see you next week.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (soft music) - [Narrator] Funding for this program is provided in part by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.