WORCESTER, Mass. - Quinsagamond Community College will use more than $2.5 million they received from the Federal Higher Education emergency relief fund to assist 1,687 students.

Each student will recieve an average amount of $1,525 of institutional debt forgiveness. The debt relief program is specifically for students who were enrolled in credit degree or certificate programming during the start of the pandemic back in March 2020 through the end of the current Spring 2021 semester.

President Luis Pedraja says the goal with this initiative is to remove the financial barrier of institutional debt which keeps many students from completing their education and achieving their goals in life.

"There's a lot of students that are low income, first generation and we wanted to eliminate this barrier," Pedraja said. "Given that the pandemic hit some of these communities the hardest, we wanted to help them complete their degree.".

"This is important to keep the students moving forward to success, to invest in our community and also to invest in our future," he added.

QCC will be notifying students on their debt relief eligibility and the school is asking students not to reach out to the college directly.