Healthy Students = Successful Students

Linking academic success and health

• A student who arrives at school fed, rested, calm, and feeling well is ready to learn.  
  
• Students who are ready to learn will be more successful in their studies.
  
• Studies show that teens with poorer general health were found to be less likely than healthier students to graduate from high school on time and attend college or post-secondary education.
  
• People with more education are likely to live longer and experience better health outcomes for themselves and their families.
  

Project Healthy Grad Goals

• Increase access to health care for students and their families.
  
• Promote healthy lifestyle choices to improve the health of the community.
• Boost enrollment in the state-funded Tuition Incentive Program to get more students moving into higher education opportunities.
  
• Advocate policy changes to support healthy, successful students.

Michigan’s Tuition Incentive Program (TIP)

The Tuition Incentive Program (TIP) is an incentive program that encourages eligible students to complete high school by providing tuition assistance for the first two years of college and beyond.  To meet the financial eligibility requirement, a student must have (or have had) Medicaid coverage for 24 months within a 36-consecutive-month period as identified by the Michigan Department of Human Services (DHS). 

TIP provides assistance in two phases. 

• Phase I covers tuition and mandatory fee charges for eligible students enrolled in a credit-based associate degree or certificate program at a participating Michigan community college, public university, degree-granting independent college, federal tribally-controlled college or Focus: HOPE. 
  
• Phase II provides a maximum of $2,000 total tuition assistance for credits earned in a four-year program at an in-state, degree-granting college or university. 

For more information on TIP, click here.
For information on other student aid programs, click here. 

About Project Healthy Grad

This Aligning Forces for Quality initiative, made possible by a  two-year grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, will focus on the close link between health and wellness, and a student’s ability to learn, graduate and go on to post-secondary education.

Alliance for Health, an aggregator of health planning, information, grants and process improvement for West Michigan, has linked several local partners to work on the goal of increasing high school graduation rates. Oakridge and Reeths-Puffer public schools are the pilot sites. 

The project partners with:

• Muskegon Opportunity, to increase the enrollment in the state-funded Tuition Incentive Program (TIP)
  
• 1 in 21 Healthy Muskegon County, to promote healthy choices
  
• Muskegon Intermediate School District, to work on policy change that will direct more Medicaid reimbursement dollars to the schools and to work with area schools in implementing a Coordinated School Health Plan.
  
• Muskegon Community Health Project, to manage the initiative and provide staff support.
  

West Michigan is one of only five recipients nationwide to receive this two-year grant. This local collaborative effort has ambitious goals to improve the quality and accessibility of healthcare to our community, while increasing graduation rates and supporting higher education.