A Salvation Army trailer is wrapped around a tree in a devastated neighborhood in Joplin, Mo. An EF-5 tornado tore through much of the city Sunday, damaging a hospital and hundreds of homes and businesses and killing at least 125 people. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)Chattanooga State Community College and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga are among 30 colleges in five states to receive grants to help college students affected by the tornado outbreaks this spring, a news release stated.
USA Funds, a nonprofit organization that helps Americans benefit from higher education, awarded $387,000 to higher education institutions in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Missouri and Tennessee.
The money, available through the Disaster Relief Fund for Postsecondary Education Students, will assist lower-income students who suffered financial hardships as a result of the tornado outbreaks in the Southeastern states from April 15 to April 28 and the May 22 tornado in Joplin, Mo.
Chattanooga State received $30,000 and UTC received $8,000 to support supplemental financial aid of up to $1,000 per student to help them pay education-related expenses.
"These grants will help ensure students are not forced to drop out or interrupt their education because of financial hardships created by these natural disasters," Denise B. Feser, a USA Funds senior vice president, said in a news release.
USA Funds originally established the Disaster Relief Fund for Postsecondary Education Students in 2005 to help college students affected by Hurricane Katrina and three other major hurricanes that year. Scholarship America administers the fund.
For more information about USA Funds, visit www.usafunds.org.