New Fund Helps Underserved and Disadvantaged Students
PC School of Pharmacy Receives Generous Grant
n 2018, nearly three out of 10 PC students came from households with annual incomes of $50,000 or less. “The Religious Life office noticed an increase in acute financial stress among these students in 2019,” Perrin Tribble ’11, PC’s director of church relations, said. The financial burden often prevented students from buying academic materials they needed, like textbooks and online learning materials. Some students struggled purchasing hygiene items. Two years ago, GRACE began as a pilot program in response to the growing number of economically disadvantaged and underserved students at PC. A grant was applied for and was awarded that led to the formation of the GRACE Fund. Standing for Giving Resources & Achieving Community Equity, the GRACE Fund is an emergency response initiative for students facing acute financial insecurity. “The GRACE Fund is at the heart of the school motto and is an effort to increase retention rates and to make PC accessible for all students,” Tribble said. “The GRACE Fund is used to address and alleviate stress quickly for the students. Other resources and departments on campus also work together to help students create a sustainable academic future.” A board of representatives, including faculty members and staff members across campus, govern the fund. Faculty and staff members most often refer students who seem to have unmet needs. Through a referral and review process, the board determines the level of assistance each student needs. Many PC alumni themselves have successfully escaped generaIn 2018, nearly 30% tional poverty by having pursued of the PC student and earned post-secondary edubody came from cation degree. Since the start of house-holds with the 2021-2022 academic year, 16 a family income students have benefitted from the of $50,000 or less. GRACE Fund. The past two years “This year was particularly difhave seen an ficult for many students, including increase myself, due to the ongoing global in those numbers. pandemic,” one PC student said.
generous $90,000 grant from the BlueCross® BlueShield® of South Carolina Foundation has allowed the Presbyterian College School of Pharmacy’s community care pharmacy to make a needed change in “personnel.” With the grant, the PC Community Pharmacy replaced an obsolete dispensing robot with a refurbished Parata Max model that helps them meet the needs of hundreds of local patients. Patients whose needs are considerable. More than 20 percent of Laurens County residents and 30 percent of Clinton residents live below the poverty level. As an outreach to patients served by the county’s Good Shepherd Free Medical Clinic, the Community Care Pharmacy fills prescriptions at no cost to patients whose income is 200 percent below the poverty level and who cannot afford care because they have no government assistance or private insurance. “We are pleased to partner with Presbyterian College on this initiative to equip today’s students with the skills they need to provide critical health care to uninsured and economically disadvantaged patients in Laurens County now and into the future,” said Erika Kirby, the executive director of the BlueCross Blue Shield of South Carolina Foundation, an independent licensee of the BlueCross BlueShield Association.
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$50,000
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PRESBYTERIAN COLLEGE
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