Students of the Marion County School District have the ability to attend Pearl River Community College for free, and all they need to do is apply before Jan. 15, 2025.
Superintendent Michael Day got the attention of many parents during Monday night’s school board meeting when he explained to them that their children can go to Pearl River Community College for free thanks to the MacKenzie Scott Foundation’s $3.5 million donation in November 2022. The donation led the school district to partner with the Pinebelt Foundation and form the Marion County School District Educational Fund, which pooled Scott’s donation with $25 million from the Pinebelt Foundation.
“We have more funds than we’re ever going to be able to give away. I wish more children would take advantage of this,” Day said. “Now the scholarship is open, and now is the time to apply. We can’t give away our scholarships (because) we have so many. If they just apply, they can go to Pearl River for free, whether it’s a vocational trade or academic or both. We will pay up to three years.”
Over the past two years, 99 students have taken advantage of the program, but an issue has been students following through. During the first year of the program, 51 students signed up but only 33 completed their first year of college. During the second year, 41 of the 48 students are still enrolled.
The foundation currently has $150,000 per semester set aside to send students to college for free, but only roughly $50,000 per semester has been used so far. Day said there’s definitely enough room in the budget to send more people to college.
Day said there’s so much money left over currently that the district is looking at expanding the program to include past graduates.
“The goal is not to bank $15 million. The goal is to get as many kids in college as possible,” Day said. “We have talked about opening it up to former graduates that want to go back to school to get a nursing degree or whatever (they want). That’s already in process.
“Let’s say you graduated 10 years ago — as long as you graduated from East or West — you have three kids and realize working at the gas station can’t pay bills, you want to go back to get your nursing degree — we would pay for it. People like that tend to be more motivated and succeed. They just need an extra hand. I’m hoping we can get that complete.”
There are no limits for how a student can use the scholarship. It can be used for all degree programs offered by PRCC, including trades, and students can attend the Poplarville campus, the Hattiesburg or Coast satellite campuses or attend the college online. Day said students could even get both a degree and trade certificate with the scholarship at the same time.
“We’ll pay for it, as long as they’re enrolled in school,” he said. “We just want as many students to take advantage of it as possible.”
Day added that all students are encouraged to apply, even if they’re intending on attending another school. He said there have been situations where students haven’t applied then later realized they wanted or needed to use the scholarship but were too late.
To apply for the scholarship, there is a flyer on the school district’s website (marionk12.org). The
application window opened Nov. 1 and closes Jan. 15, 2025. To be eligible, students must have a 2.0 GPA, be accepted to PRCC, complete their FAFSA and accept any awards given and participate in an interview with the scholarship committee.
