Dare to Finish, Last Mile to Completion Helping Former Students Return to College

A special program to help former students return to campus and complete their degree is proving a success at Eastern Florida State College.

Called Dare to Finish, the program aligns with Gov. Ron DeSantis’ Last Mile to Completion initiative to help students get back in the classroom and graduate.

The EFSC effort reaches out to former students and invites them to special workshops to assist with re-enrollment, including course selection and information on how to receive credit for life experience, grade forgiveness, online options and more.

Selected students are close to completing their degrees but never graduated. More than 3,000 former students have been contacted in the past three years and offered re-enrollment services.

"These students have made it within nearly one semester of graduation and proven they can be successful in the classroom,” said Christine Tripp, EFSC’s Director of Student Recruitment and Enrollment Marketing.

“They just need a little help to get back and finish what they've started. We meet them with open arms and provide a lot of individualized help.”

People are seizing the opportunity. For example, more than 200 of the former students contacted in 2018 reapplied to EFSC and 34 have graduated.

“With an estimated 46 million Americans with college credits and no degree, it’s very important that we help students along the Space Coast reach their educational goals,” said Tripp.

Dare to Finish is a complement to the Last Mile to Completion program launched in 2019 by Gov. DeSantis and the Florida Department of Education.

The Last Mile program creates a pathway helping students who left college with 12 or fewer credit hours remaining to complete their first degree.

As Florida’s workforce engine, the Florida College System that includes EFSC knows that continuing to develop the state’s talent pipeline is a top priority for business owners, and Last Mile is a key part of the solution.

EFSC’s Dare to Finish criteria include:
•    Be a Florida resident
•    Be in good academic standing
•    Be within 12 credit hours of completing an Associate in Arts or Associate in Science Degree
•    Attended EFSC within the past eight years
•    Have a GPA of 2.0 or higher
•    Not enrolled for the last three terms

Former students returning to EFSC pay no application fees, and scholarships may be available to those who qualify and apply for assistance.

For more information and to apply, visit easternflorida.edu/go/finish