The Pinellas Education Foundation is proud to partner with Crown Automotive Charities to offer a new scholarship to aid students in completing their career and technical education certifications (CTE) at Pinellas Technical College.

Together, through the Finish Line Scholarship, we are supporting students with funds to help complete any remaining certification hours needed after high school graduation.

In recent years, Florida expanded the opportunity for students to earn dual enrollment credit at public school career and technical education colleges. This addition is similar to a dual enrollment college track but allows students to work towards earning a career and/or technical education certification.

60% of CTE dual enrollment programs require 1,050 full-time hours or one year to complete when attending full-time. Not all high school students can commit to all the hours in addition to their regular schedule. Students that graduate with 600 or fewer CTE hours to complete are no longer eligible for certain federal funding programs, such as Pell Grants. Ultimately, some students were unable to finish their certification program due to financial need.

As a result, the partnership for the Finish Line Scholarship was born. This new opportunity, the first of its kind, provides funding for graduating high school seniors that are dual enrolled in the automotive program who otherwise may leave the program. In the future, we will expand the scholarship to other career pathways allowing more students to achieve their certifications and enter the workforce.

“This new scholarship provides students the opportunity to finish their automotive service technology certifications, which may have otherwise been abandoned while addressing an industry-wide gap in qualified service technicians,” said Angela Hawkins, Executive Director for Crown Automotive Charities.

This is just one example of innovative solutions we work towards to drive educational achievement and help every student be prepared for life after high school.

Thank you, Crown Automotive Charities, for your generous investment in students’ lives and for building a workforce for future success.