Crankstart Awards Morgan State University $800,000 to Expand Reentry Scholarships for Adult Learners
Renewed Four-Year Investment Extends Longstanding Partnership Supporting Nontraditional Students Pursuing Bachelor’s Degrees
BALTIMORE — Morgan State University’s Center for Continuing and Professional Studies (CCPS) has received an $800,000 grant from the Crankstart Foundation to continue providing reentry scholarships for nontraditional adult learners pursuing bachelor’s degrees. The four-year award, effective September 1, 2026, through August 31, 2030, renews a longstanding partnership focused on expanding access to higher education and supporting adult learners through degree completion.
CCPS has administered the Crankstart Reentry Scholarship at Morgan since 2016, providing critical financial assistance to students returning to college after an extended interruption in their education. The latest investment extends that support through 2030, marking more than a decade of collaboration between Morgan and Crankstart to reduce financial barriers that can impede adult students seeking to complete their undergraduate education.
“The Center for Continuing and Professional Studies has the unique privilege of serving adult learners from across Morgan State University, regardless of their academic program or where they are in their educational journey. Our longstanding partnership with Crankstart strengthens our ability to provide university-wide support to adult and reentry students who are balancing the pursuit of a degree with the many responsibilities of adult life,” said Nilajah Nyasuma Sims, Ed.D., executive director for CCPS. “This renewed $800,000 investment is not simply an investment in scholarships—it is an investment in the determination, success and limitless potential of Morgan’s adult learners. We are grateful that Crankstart continues to recognize the value of this work and to partner with CCPS in expanding pathways to degree completion.”
The need for reentry pathways remains significant. According to the Education Data Initiative, approximately 600,000 working-age adults in Maryland have attended college, accumulated credits, but have stopped out short of earning a degree. For these returning learners, degree completion yields substantial benefits. Since the scholarship’s inception at Morgan, Crankstart scholarship degree earners have experienced success in increasing earning potential, advancing career opportunities, and improving employment stability. Adult learners also bring valuable professional and life experience to the classroom, often returning with clearer career goals and renewed motivation. Beyond the economic benefits, completing a degree can strengthen critical-thinking and problem-solving skills, provide a profound sense of personal achievement and demonstrate the value of perseverance and lifelong learning to families and communities.
The Crankstart Reentry Scholarship Program was established at Morgan in 2016, amassing nearly $2.4 million in scholarship grant awards supporting under-resourced, working adult learners. Since then, the program has provided need-based scholarship assistance to returning students demonstrating academic promise and a commitment to earning their first bachelor’s degree.
Over the course of the partnership, Crankstart Scholars have pursued degrees across a broad spectrum of disciplines at Morgan, including Applied Liberal Studies, Business Management, Social Work, Psychology, Engineering, Computer Science, Education and Sociology. By helping offset the financial costs associated with returning to college, the scholarship provides an important resource for students who often must balance academics with employment, family responsibilities and other obligations.
The program complements Morgan’s broader efforts to create accessible pathways to degree attainment for adult and returning students, the nontraditional student sector and serves as a key growth strategy among higher education institutions, including Morgan. Through CCPS, the University serves the lifelong educational needs of traditional and nontraditional learners pursuing undergraduate, graduate, professional and personal development opportunities. The Center provides services and programs tailored to individuals at varying stages of their educational journeys.
In addition to administering the Crankstart Reentry Scholarship, CCPS supports adult learners through scholarship and student-success initiatives that include the Osher Reentry Scholarship, Newcombe Scholarship for Mature Students, Improved Opportunities for Parents (IOP) and Beryl W. Williams Scholarship.
To qualify for the Crankstart Reentry Scholarship, applicants must be enrolled at Morgan State University, either part-time or full-time, and returning to higher education after a three-year gap while pursuing their first bachelor’s degree. Eligible applicants must also meet the program’s age, residency/status, academic and other eligibility requirements.
About Morgan
Morgan State University, founded in 1867, is a Carnegie-classified high research (R2) institution offering more than 150 baccalaureate, master’s degree, doctorate and certificate programs. As Maryland’s Preeminent Public Urban Research University, and the only university to have its entire campus designated as a National Treasure by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Morgan serves a multiethnic and multiracial student body and seeks to ensure that the doors of higher education are opened as wide as possible to as many as possible. For more information about Morgan State University, visit www.morgan.edu.
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Larry Jones, Dell Jackson, or Cheryl Stewart, for Morgan State University PR
443-885-3022
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