Tennessee Achieves Drive 55 Status

Thinking about going back to school or even starting school for the first time? Not sure where to start or what programs might actually be out there? Fortunately, the state of Tennessee has a possible solution for those non-traditional students with their Drive 55 campaign. What follows is more information about the campaign and if it might be the right fit for you.

Drive 55 came out of the TN achieves program whose mission is to eliminate barriers for students to get a post-secondary education. It was launched as a low income community and technical scholarship that pairs students with mentors to help them complete 8 hours of community service per college semester. TN achieves is traditionally geared toward high school graduates and first time college students.

Seeing success in this program TN achieves wanted to help further. They wanted to move beyond just helping “traditional” students given that the reality of post-secondary degrees for most adults in Tennessee is slightly troubling. Only 32.9 percent of Tennesseans hold a post-secondary degree, and TN achieves wanted to remedy this program with their Drive to 55 campaign.

What exactly is Drive to 55? Created in 2014 by Chairman Randy Boyd in his serving as a senior advisor on an education committee. The goal of the program is to improve higher education efforts by achieving a whole 55 percent of Tennesseans holding a post-secondary degree by 2025. Through their efforts they hope to ensure that no student is limited in their pursuit of education because of socio-economic status, zip code, or social background.

The scholarships provided by the program provide students possible access to the state’s 13 community colleges, 27 colleges of applied technology, and select public and private 4 year universities. They want to make sure that students are prepared for college even though they might not have previous college experience. Drive 55 hopes to provide opportunities for students to give them success in the classroom that can transfer to the work force.

If you or someone that you love is looking to apply to college or is looking for a post-secondary opportunity you can find more information about TN achieves and Drive 55 at their respective websites. You never know about these opportunities until you take them so get out there and explore.