Last Mile Education Fund

06/09/2026

What does a $45 return on every dollar actually look like? You can play with the numbers yourself on our new Social ROI Calculator. 👀

Watch what happens when you move the donation amount around. Every contribution maps to a real return: graduation, lifetime earnings, and public value generated as a student moves from the dropout cliff to a career in tech.

The wild part is how little it takes. The average Last Mile award of $2,162 can return 45x its value to society and the economy in just a decade.

Go try it yourself, see where your dollar lands, and make a donation: https://www.lastmile-ed.org/sroi

06/08/2026

A math major, one semester from graduating, suddenly lost his financial aid.

Because he’d nearly finished his major, he no longer had enough credits to qualify for full time aid, but he still had to be enrolled to graduate. So there he was, paying out of pocket this close to the finish line.

It’s a gap that hits math and STEM students in ways the usual aid formulas miss.

Last Mile Education Fund stepped in to provide a gift, and Delgardo was able to graduate.

Read Delgardo’s story: https://www.lastmile-ed.org/last-mile-blog/delgardos-story

06/05/2026

$23,119 vs. $85,516.

That’s the gap between starting your career with some college and no degree...or making it to the finish line.
In STEM, a degree in hand makes all the difference.

Last Mile graduates in computer science and engineering earn roughly $86K at the start of their careers. Their peers who started college but never finished earn around $23K. That’s a $63K gap in year one alone, and it compounds across a lifetime.

The hardest part: that final barrier is usually financial, not academic. A student this close to graduating shouldn’t lose everything over an expense the size of a car repair.

That’s the gap we close. Read our Social ROI Report: https://www.lastmile-ed.org/sroi

06/03/2026

What’s the impact of a STEM student who makes it to the last mile and graduates?

Our new Social Return on Investment report quantifies what happens when a near-completion STEM student gets the right support at the right moment.

Every $1 invested in a Last Mile student returns $45 in social and economic value over 10 years.

This isn't an optimistic projection. We built the model on real salary data from 3,558 graduates and stress-tested every figure against private market benchmarks. The return still stands.

Small, timely capital at the finish line may change one life, but it also unlocks a decade of earnings, mobility, and workforce impact.

06/02/2026

The U.S. chip sector is booming, but short on the talent it needs to sustain growth.

In this Bloomberg interview, SEMI's Shari Liss made a critical plea: the U.S. semiconductor industry needs more qualified workers, and it needs them now.

The U.S. has invested billions in the semiconductors industry, but Industry analysts project the U.S. could face a gap of tens of thousands of engineers and technicians by 2029. Talent is the bottleneck.

Last Mile Education Fund is proud to be at the heart of the solution with the Semiconductor Pathways Fund, a $20M national coalition designed to help 6,700+ students graduate ready to work in semiconductors roles across America.

Thank you to our partners Applied Materials, Lam Research Corporation, KLA Foundation, AMD, and Cadence for investing in this important project.

The talent is here. We just have to make sure they graduate.

President Trump says he discussed guardrails on AI and Nvidia's H200 chips with Chinese leader Xi Jinping during a two-day summit in Beijing. Shari Liss, vice president of global workforce development and initiatives at SEMI, joins Bloomberg’s Caroline Hyde and Ed Ludlow on "Bloomberg Tech" to dis...

06/01/2026

When your laptop can't keep up with your goals, your goals get smaller.

Or…they stop entirely.

Kamilla was working multiple jobs to sustain herself, with parents who couldn't help financially and a laptop that couldn't keep up.

A friend told her about Last Mile Education Fund. She applied, was awarded a new laptop, and began to accelerate towards a career in AI and data engineering.

Since 2020, we’ve supported over 14,000 STEM students to keep them on track towards graduation. By helping a new generation of talent join the workforce, we’re powering the innovation economy.

Talent is abundant. Access isn't. Last Mile closes that gap.

Read more stories like Kamilla's in our latest Annual Impact Report: https://www.lastmile-ed.org/last-mile-blog/impact-25

05/29/2026

What happens when you stop asking “Who deserves my help the most?” and start asking “What will it take to get the most students to the finish line?”

That single shift is what we call the abundance mindset.

It’s the belief that talent is everywhere, that financial vulnerability is a low-cost, high ROI problem to solve, and that opportunity expands when our support does.

Last fall, we saw what that mindset looks like in a room. We joined our partner CUNY to host a gathering for the NYC Tech Talent Fund, which brought together current students, recent graduates, tech executives, and professors for a night of networking and mentorship.

People who were struggling to figure out how to pay for college or afford groceries just a couple of years ago are now associates at companies like Bank of America, Google, and Meta.

How? Because we choose to see gift giving as an investment in the future, not a competition of scarcity.

This is what the abundance mindset unlocks for the innovation economy.

Will you join us? Learn more: lastmile-ed.org.

05/28/2026

This semester, thousands of students will graduate with help from Last Mile Education Fund. Each degree conferred is a valuable addition to the innovation talent pipeline.

As you're making commencement gifts to the grads in your life, consider making another gift to support future graduates: https://www.lastmile-ed.org/donate

05/22/2026

To help college students graduate, we have to stop thinking of them as all newly-minted adults, aged 18-22. Our Annual Report revealed: 44% of Last Mile awardees are older than age 29. In this piece, Inside Higher Ed explores the trend of adult learners pursuing degrees at 30+, and what higher education experts can do to support them:

New research challenges assumptions about post-traditional learners, finding that older and working students often show strong persistence and graduation outcomes.

05/20/2026

What happens when the next breakthrough in AI, public health, or robotics depends on a student who can't afford to take a summer research opportunity?

This is the million dollar question that only takes $500-10,000 to solve.

In our May 2026 newsletter:

🔬 Last Mile Associate Director of Outreach & Engagement Casey Koppelson on how small, timely investments are unlocking life-changing research experiences for financially vulnerable students

⛽ Our founder and CEO Ruthe Farmer on the crisis of rising gas prices and how a $15 increase at the pump can decide who graduates and who doesn't

💭 Last Mile alum Devonie Nelson on the moment that almost ended her STEM career, and what her Last Mile gift made possible

🎓 Student spotlight on Esteban Ayala, headed to Silicon Valley as a software engineer this spring after internships at Workday, ActiveCampaign, Palo Alto Networks, and Pinterest

⭐ Community Champion Antoinette Griffin of Howard University on why closing small financial gaps changes everything

Read the full issue below.