All course fees at Berea College will be covered this academic year thanks to a large anonymous donation.
Some courses at Berea College charge students fees to help cover lab materials, or travel costs. The school says those fees can cost anywhere from $10 to $150 dollars.
Berea is a work college, with tuition already covered through its endowment fund and individual donations.
School president Cheryl Nixon says it’s a way to make sure academics are completely covered otherwise.
“One class that we're using as a good example is nursing,” Nixon said. “Nursing just has a lot of materials that are part of it, because you're having to do a stethoscope, your armbands. There’s a lot there that’s quite costly, and it’s just a way that higher ed has come up with making sure costs are covered.”
Nursing student Shay Ayansoga says the help covering those fees will help her focus on her studies.
“I used to work and go to school, so it was quite a lot,” Ayansoga said. “And I was taking my prereqs back then, and trust me, those classes were hard classes. Really hard, anatomy, microbio, so it was kind of hard to balance working and schooling at the same time.”
Nixon says they hope to continue covering course fees after this academic year.
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