CUNY SPS Students Impacted by COVID-19

Bronx Non-profit Offers Cash Grants to CUNY SPS Students Impacted by COVID-19

The CUNY SPS Foundation Board works closely with the School and outside partners to support our students on their path to success. With the COVID crisis, our mission has taken on an even greater urgency.

The following articles offer a look at two COVID relief initiatives that the Foundation Board and the School, with the help of The Bronx Community Foundation and the Carroll and Milton Petrie Foundation, were able to provide to CUNY SPS students in need during this especially challenging time.

This grant, which offers emergency cash assistance in the form of $250 cash cards, has been awarded and distributed to 60 students throughout the Fall 2020 Semester.

The Bronx Community Foundation (Bx.C.F.) provided a generous grant of $15,000 to help CUNY SPS students who reside in The Bronx and have been impacted by COVID-19. This grant, which offers emergency cash assistance in the form of $250 cash cards, has been awarded and distributed to 60 students throughout the Fall 2020 Semester. "The Bronx Community Foundation shares a vision with CUNY SPS of the power and impact of vibrant, empowered, and educated communities in New York City,” said Brennon Marcano, chief executive officer of the National GEM Consortium and member of the CUNY SPS Foundation Board of Directors, who spearheaded the collaboration. “Through their generosity, CUNY SPS will be able to continue to support those most in need during a time of great uncertainty and for that we are very grateful." Under the terms of the grant, current students in any undergraduate, graduate, or certificate program at CUNY SPS who reside in Bronx County, NY, and demonstrate genuine financial need due to COVID-19 were eligible for the award. Following an extensive outreach campaign by the Office of Scholarships, students living in the borough who have been experiencing financial emergencies as a result of the pandemic were encouraged to apply. Out of the pool of applicants, 60 students were selected based on need. Of those awardees, 40 were continuing students and 20 were new students that had started their first semester at CUNY SPS in Fall 2020. Overall, the recipients hailed from 18 undergraduate, graduate, and certificate programs across the School, including the business, psychology, and nursing programs. The Bronx Community Foundation, the first and only community foundation in The Bronx, is a non-profit solely dedicated to delivering resources to the entirety of the borough. This grant was offered to CUNY SPS students as part of a larger COVID-19 relief initiative, The Bronx Community Relief Effort, launched by the foundation at the outset of the pandemic to help communities in crisis across the borough.