LDS Church Gift Provides Scholarships for PACE Students at Salt Lake Community College

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) recently donated $600,000 to support Salt Lake Community College’s PACE Program (Partnership for Accessing College Education). This generous gift will cover tuition, fees, and book expenses for six semesters for SLCC students who have completed their high school PACE Program and will attend the community college.

“We are incredibly grateful for this gift from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to support scholarships for our PACE Scholars. Over the years, I’ve seen how transformative this program is for our first-generation and low-income students, and we have watched these students flourish in higher education here and beyond,” said SLCC President Deneece G. Huftalin.

PACE, a donor-funded program, has significantly increased high school graduation and college participation rates in the Salt Lake Valley for low-income and first-generation college students over the last 10 years. The program provides individualized mentorship for all four years in high school and helps prepare students for college and career exploration. The LDS gift so far has funded 43 PACE scholarships for this spring semester.

The first PACE program took root at West High School in 2011. It is now in six high schools, with the recent addition of Granger High. Of the 561 students who have graduated from the PACE program, 442 have gone on to college. The mentoring and scholarship program provides graduates with a six-semester scholarship to SLCC.

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