The Last Mile Scholarship: How EWU Helps Students Cross the Finish Line

There’s a certain kind of student story you almost never see in the news. It’s not the dramatic “I started with nothing, now I’m valedictorian” headline, and it’s not the movie-ready moment of tossing graduation caps into the sky. Honestly, it’s quieter than all that. It’s about the student who is so close to graduating, but just a fee or an unexpected crisis away from dropping out. At Eastern Washington University, that’s exactly the spot where the Last Mile Scholarship comes in. And, to be real, it might be one of the smartest, most quietly powerful ideas in higher education right now.

The Last Mile Scholarship program began as a proof-of-concept collaboration between EWU and the Krumble Foundation to see how a small financial, low barrier scholarship could increase retention and graduation rates. To qualify, a student needed to be an undergraduate, exhibit a financial need, and have 30 or fewer quarter credits left to graduate—or 20 if in a semester program. The criteria tested whether students who advance to within a short distance from graduation and stop out for financial reasons could overcome those last hurdles to graduation with a small financial boost.

Laura Thayer, EWU’s associate vice president of philanthropy, says, “It was really designed to catch students before they dropped out of school because they only needed $1,000 or $2,000 to graduate. So, it’s really just to help people get to the finish line.”

That’s the whole point. Not some huge fix for the system. Not a maze of paperwork or hoops to jump through. Just a program aimed at making sure small money problems don’t turn into major life detours.

And, according to Thayer, money gaps happen more than most people realize. By the time students reach their final year, scholarship options tend to dry up. Those big “welcome to college” awards are great for getting students in, but oftentimes don’t follow students to senior year. Over the course of a conventional four-year path, inflation tends to increase all costs — rent, groceries, gas, and tuition.

“College tuition is a cost on top of the costs to live: rent, food, transportation, child care plus other life expenses including minor and major emergencies,” Thayer points out. “As the cost of living rises and emergencies pop up, for some, tuition money is squeezed from the budget.”

Those costs for basic living expenses are what trip up a lot of students near the finish line. But sometimes, it’s not just rent or groceries—it’s the unexpected complications that come with trying to do more, learn more, or simply finish strong.

That’s exactly what happened to Georgia Murcar, an EWU student pursuing a degree in Elementary Education with a minor in Environmental Sustainability. As she got closer to graduation, a financial aid issue tied to her minor nearly forced her to stop out.

“I was awarded the Last Mile Scholarship for my senior year,” Murcar explains. “Pursuing my minor caused issues with financial aid and I wasn’t able to continue with it until one of my amazing professors, Kathrine Baldwin, put my name in for the scholarship. I got signed up and I was able to continue with it.”

Her story highlights how quickly a small administrative or financial hiccup can derail a student’s progress—and how a relatively small intervention can make the difference between stopping out and finishing strong.

But the Last Mile Scholarship stands out, not just for what it covers, but for how you get it. Thayer calls it intentionally low-barrier. “There aren’t many criteria to be eligible for this scholarship. If you are in financial need and within 30 credits of graduating, you can apply.”

No endless application forms. No essays about how you plan to save the world. Just: Are you almost done? Do you need help? If yes, here’s a way forward.

In its first year (2024–25), that simple formula made a real difference—a total of 124 students used this support to earn their degrees. The average award was around $1,700, and the graduation rate for those scholarship recipients was 100%.

It’s not because they were “saved,” either—they were already motivated. The scholarship just cleared the one last obstacle. Thayer sees it the same way: “Students who want to stay in school are looking for solutions. They have personal perseverance and motivation.”

Because the pilot program showed that financial help for high credit students (essentially seniors) does lead to 100% graduation rate for the treatment group, the EWU Foundation is continuing to raise money for the program to continue to make this kind of assistance available to EWU students. As Thayer says:

“It’s an inexpensive way to make a really big impact on another person’s life. It’s immediate and direct.”

There’s something brilliantly simple about that. No jargon. No hand-waving. Just doing something that matters, right now. And that’s why the Last Mile Scholarship stands out. It doesn’t claim to fix every problem in higher ed. It doesn’t pretend one program can erase financial insecurity. It just zooms in on a crucial moment—the last stretch before graduation—and refuses to let students fall through the cracks. Because that last mile? It matters. Not just for runners and projects, but for college degrees, too.