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Program to provide free first year of college for some Central Coast students gets major grant

A Central Coast foundation has received a $50,000 grant for a program to help high school students get into college.
Priscilla Du Preez
/
Unsplash
A Central Coast foundation has received a $50,000 grant for a program to help high school students get into college.

Hancock College Foundation creates Hancock Promise Endowment, covering fees and books for first year students who are local high school graduates.

A foundation giving some Central Coast high school students the chance to get their first year of college for free got a major grant from a utility company.

The Allan Hancock Foundation received $50,000 from the PG&E Foundation.

The money is going to what’s known as the Hancock Promise endowment. Graduating high school students who live within the college district’s boundaries can get their first year of tuition, and fees covered by the program.

The idea is to remove barriers for young adults to continue their educations. The Santa Maria-based college's endowment has $6.5 million in gifts and pledges, and is working to build it to $10 million.

Lance Orozco has been News Director of KCLU since 2001, providing award-winning coverage of some of the biggest news events in the region, including the Thomas and Woolsey brush fires, the deadly Montecito debris flow, the Borderline Bar and Grill attack, and Ronald Reagan's funeral.