The Financial Aid Department collaborated with the Outreach Department to create a specialized Concurrent Maricopa Grant process for high school students who are simultaneously enrolled in both their high school and EMCC.
Concurrent enrollment refers to high school students who take classes at their high school while also coming to the EMCC campus to enroll in college‑level courses. These students differ from those in Dual Enrollment programs, where students earn college credit for courses taken at their high school.
For several years, Dual Enrollment students have followed a dedicated and well‑established process to apply for Maricopa Grant funding. In contrast, the process for Concurrent students has been blended into the standard EMCC student funding process. This made it difficult for Concurrent high school students to locate and complete the correct steps, and it also removed the process from the Outreach Department and the EMCC high school–embedded Advisors who already support these students.
This lack of separation also created challenges in accurately determining whether a student qualified for Dual Enrollment or Concurrent Maricopa Grant funding.
Financial Aid (FA) and Outreach held several meetings to design a new process for the Concurrent Maricopa Grant. After the workflow was established, a new student e‑form was created, added to the EMCC Concurrent High School student website, and made available for students to begin submitting applications.
As applications were received, additional process improvements were identified and implemented. Because this represented a significant change from previous procedures, both FA and Outreach staff needed time to fully understand and adapt to the new workflow. As a result, the two departments have continued to collaborate closely throughout the year to refine the process and ensure consistent implementation.
Financial Aid (FA) reviewed data on the number of high school students who received the Concurrent Maricopa Grant and identified the following trends:
- 2024–2025: When the Concurrent Grant process was combined with the regular EMCC student process, no Concurrent Grants were awarded for Fall 2024 or Spring 2025.
- 2025–2026: After the new, dedicated process was implemented, 6 students received Concurrent Grants for Fall 2025 and 15 students received awards for Spring 2026. In total, 16 students received 20 awards.
These results demonstrate that the process change was both necessary and effective. By establishing a clear and accessible workflow, FA and Outreach were able to successfully award 20 Concurrent Grants to 16 high school students who needed financial support to take courses at EMCC.
FA and Outreach have fully implemented this new process and will continue exploring additional opportunities to make it even more seamless for students and for the staff who process Concurrent Maricopa Grants.