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Local woman 1st to earn credit for free tuition program
YOUNGSTOWN
When her grandchildren were young, Paula Kacir took them with her every day to the preschool that she ran.
Even at that age, she emphasized to them the importance of a college education.
“I told them, ‘Pick up those pennies so you can go to college and take care of me someday,’” she said.
Now, Kacir, of Lowellville, is helping her grandson achieve that goal. She is the first person in the state to complete the 100 volunteer hours required to participate in “GIVE back. GO forward” program, which was piloted at Youngstown State University and Eastern Gateway Community College and is a collaboration among those schools, the Ohio Department of Aging, Mature Services, the Ohio Department of Higher Education and Gov. John Kasich’s office.
Through that program, Youngstown-area residents age 60 or older who complete 100 hours of volunteer work with certain local organizations can use or give to a recipient of their choice a tuition waiver for up to three credit hours at YSU or EGCC. After volunteering at United Way of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley, Kacir earned the tuition waiver for her grandson Michael, a YSU freshman who is studying civil engineering.
The two, along with YSU President Jim Tressel, Kathy Mock of United Way, and Ohio Department of Higher Education Chancellor John Carey spoke at a news conference Thursday at the Youngstown Historical Center of Labor and Industry to celebrate award of the first tuition waiver.
The younger Kacir spoke emotionally about his grandmother’s gift to him, choking up as he described what it meant to him.
“This takes a burden off my shoulders,” he said. “I just can’t thank her enough for putting in the time to do it.”
He, too, remembers going to school every day with his grandmother. He recalled one time when she read stories aloud to students when they took shelter in the basement during a tornado warning.
“I sat in her lap and knew everything was going to be OK,” he said, tearing up.
Although Michael works to pay for school and knows earning a degree will pay off in the future, tuition expenses cause him some anxiety, he said. He plans to use the tuition waiver for a class next semester.
Officials plan to use the Kacirs’ story to help expand the program to other parts of the state.
“We’re going to take what you’ve learned here and replicate it across the state,” Carey said during the conference. “You’re making history today.”
Tressel, Mock and Carey described the program as beneficial not only to those who receive tuition waivers but to community members who choose to volunteer.
“When we launched this vision, we had in mind a chance for people 60 and over to get involved in the community, which would be a win in its own right,” said Tressel. “That’s what the program is all about, is seeing if we can help every part of the community.”
For more information, visit www.ohiohighered.org/GBGF.