Last Mile Education Fund

Last Mile Education Fund Investing in the next generation of technology talent. Learn more, apply for funding, or donate at LastMile-ed.org

09/04/2026

When a student leaves college because they can't afford it, the cost isn't just their existing student debt. It's over half a million dollars that the entire system has invested in them, lost over small obstacles, often as little as $1,200.

Watch Last Mile founder Ruthe Farmer's TED talk about how to solve America's talent pipeline problem at the link in comments.

TED
TEDx

09/03/2026

The tech and innovation economy has an enormous opportunity to unlock more talent, and we're showing how.

Every year, tens of thousands of talented juniors and seniors abandon their degrees over a single financial emergency they can't solve. The traditional financial aid system won't help them. That's the gap our founder, Ruthe Farmer, set out to close when she launched Last Mile Education Fund in 2020.

Since then, we've helped 15,000+ STEM students stay on track to finish their degrees and enter the innovation workforce.

Now that mission is reaching the national stage. Ruthe's TED Conferences talk, part of "The Future of Talent," makes the case for a low cost, high ROI solution to America's workforce crisis.

Follow us at Last Mile Education Fund, and watch and share: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nai1VgmEXW0

The change from your coffee, groceries, or gas can add up to a college degree.Last Mile Education Fund is now on RoundUp...
09/03/2026

The change from your coffee, groceries, or gas can add up to a college degree.

Last Mile Education Fund is now on RoundUp.org, making it incredibly easy to support students who are close to earning their degrees but facing an unexpected financial barrier.

🧡 Small financial shocks can derail years of hard work. Small change can keep that from happening. Round up your everyday purchases to the nearest dollar, and those few cents go directly toward keeping students enrolled and on track to graduate.

✅ It’s automatic.
âś… It adds up.
âś… It turns everyday spending into more graduates.

🎯 Join in seconds.

Bonus: sign up to round up for three months, and RoundUp.org adds a $25 gift to Last Mile on top.

Spare change. More graduates.

https://www.roundup.org/nonprofits/last-mile-education-fund-co-lafayette-1h81u6f?utm_campaign=admin_portal&utm_medium=site&utm_source=roundup

Most leaders in the math community can picture that one student: talented, capable, but without a degree because of mone...
09/01/2026

Most leaders in the math community can picture that one student: talented, capable, but without a degree because of money.

For the first time, the Mathematical Association of America’s national network has a way to reach those students before they stop out. Together, MAA and Last Mile Education Fund are putting the power of this community behind the students who need it most.

08/28/2026

137 students. $105K gifted. A national cyber powerhouse you didn’t expect.

St. Petersburg College is one of the top schools we fund, with $105,000 gifted to help 137 students finish their degrees since 2020.

Their top major for our awardees? Cybersecurity. St. Pete’s Cybersecurity Program is a designated National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense (CAE-CD), a federal recognition reserved for the country’s strongest cyber programs.

As a community college that also offers four-year degrees, St. Petersburg College is exactly the kind of place where hidden talent lives: accessible, rigorous, and full of students ready to build careers in innovation.

Special thanks to St. Pete professors Johnie Long and Laura Malave for helping us get the word out and champion these students every step of the way.

What if a student's future never came down to who was willing to co-sign for a loan?On Episode 3 of The Abundance Impera...
08/26/2026

What if a student's future never came down to who was willing to co-sign for a loan?

On Episode 3 of The Abundance Imperative podcast, Ruthe Farmer sits down with Jeannie Tarkenton, founder and CEO of Funding U, the fintech rethinking student lending around where a graduate is headed, not the wealth they were born into.

They dig into the origin of Funding U (including a last mile moment with Jeannie's college roommate, MacKenzie Scott), why so few private loans reach students without a wealthy co-signer, and why the final months of a degree are where the need, and the payoff, are greatest.

Because free tuition alone doesn't put gas in the car or food on the table. This one is about what finishing college actually takes.

Listen: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/potential-not-privilege-reimagining-student-loans-jeannie/id6785932313?i=1000786067016

We have always believed that talent is everywhere.You can’t buy it.You can only find it and invest in it.This is what Do...
08/25/2026

We have always believed that talent is everywhere.

You can’t buy it.

You can only find it and invest in it.

This is what Dolly Parton did.

A girl from one of the poorest families in one of the poorest regions in America, Dolly never forgot where she came from or who she was.

Her legacy is not simply her iconic music and singular style, but every child whose education she supported, every community she invested in, and every person she has inspired to do good in this world.

Thank you, Dolly. 🦋

Since 2020, Last Mile has supported over 15,000 aspiring innovators with timely, flexible awards averaging under $3,000 ...
08/25/2026

Since 2020, Last Mile has supported over 15,000 aspiring innovators with timely, flexible awards averaging under $3,000 per student.

And for many, that modest investment changed everything. Thirty percent of students say Last Mile was either the decisive factor or a significant force in degree completion. Today, we confirm an 80% graduation rate—nearly three times the national average for similarly resourced peers.

But the story doesn’t end at commencement. Graduates move into high-demand tech careers—designing, building, securing, and powering the technologies that shape our economy. Independent analysis shows every dollar invested in Last Mile generates an extraordinary 45× return in social and economic value over ten years.

This is what happens when the right support meets the right moment.

Vote for Last Mile to be part of SXSWedu 2027! Our panel, Beyond the Scholarship: Rethinking Student Financial Aid, is l...
08/21/2026

Vote for Last Mile to be part of SXSWedu 2027!

Our panel, Beyond the Scholarship: Rethinking Student Financial Aid, is live on the SXSW EDU PanelPicker, and community votes help decide what gets on the stage in Austin.

Here's the question we want to dig into: for 50 years, higher ed has poured money into entry scholarships for financially vulnerable students. Access went up, but completion didn't. Half of community college students still don't finish, and a single financial emergency is often what pushes them out.

So what happens if we change when the money shows up? Our Director of Research and Evaluation, Sarah A. Outland, PhD, will unpack what we've learned from small, no-strings-attached gifts delivered in a student's final stretch of a STEM degree.

Voting closes August 23. It takes about a minute of your time.

Vote for us here:

https://participate.sxsw.com/flow/sxsw/sxsw27/community-voting-edu/page/community-voting/session/1784915244722001rHnW

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2770 Arapahoe Road, Ste 132/513
Lafayette, CO
80026

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