Dressed in scrubs with her hair tied back, Alana Collins looks focused as she weighs one of her fellow classmates, pushing the slider on the scale until it’s perfectly balanced. She writes down the number and moves on to the next task at hand.
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fter working nights and weekends in the service industry for more than 20 years, Collins was ready for a change. For the second semester Scott Community College (SCC) student, learning the ins and outs of the Medical Assistant profession has been the perfect path to a better future. It’s a future that’s recently been made even brighter with the help of new Urban Campus scholarships. Designed exclusively for students taking classes at SCC’s Urban Campus, students can receive up to $1,000 per semester. Collins received $1,000 this spring. “I was very excited and grateful,” Collins said. “I felt that I could be able to work just as hard if not harder to reach my goals.” She said these scholarships show the college “gets it,” which can go a long way in keeping students motivated. “Life is expensive and being awarded this scholarship just made me feel like SCC understands that many of us are already working hard at our current jobs and sometimes an incentive like this just lets us know to keep moving forward!” With her reduced tuition bill, she was able to afford a laptop – something that’s already made college much easier. “It was a pain to get to the library during their hours to type a paper or research. I like to get up at three or four a.m. and get some studying done. So just having my own computer makes my life much more convenient. The Medical Assistant Program has some online class options and a home computer is almost essential.” She said the best part, is that the scholarship application was so easy to fill out.
8 eicc.edu/tccmagazine 8 eicc.edu/tccmagazine
