The first Maine children who received a $500 Alfond Grant at birth are now using it to help pay for college 18 years later.
Colleen Quint with the Harold Alfond Scholarship Foundation said 650 kids received the grant during the program’s first year, and 75 of them have already been used to pay for higher education.
“Our hope and full expectation is that a lot of students will find that grant is going to become available right when they need it most, which might be next semester or might even be next fall,” Quint said.
Quint said many of the children who received grants during the first year were born later in 2008 and therefore have not yet graduated from high school. In total, Quinn said nearly 185,000 children have received Alfond grants, totaling more than $800 million through the foundation’s initial investment, individual family contributions, and accrued interest.
She said the vision of the grants was to inspire families to begin saving early for their child’s higher education.
“Any dollar you have saved is $1 you don’t need to borrow, and so those small dollars really do add up. Invested dollars really do grow over time, at least historically, and it brings it all within reach,” Quint explained.
Quint said that initial $500 investment is now worth roughly $2,400. Many families invested their own contributions, so Quint said, their account totals are much higher.