GC Student Invited to Speak on Behalf of Illinois Students at Governor Quinn's Rally

Published: April 13, 2021

Governor Quinn invited Greenville College sophomore and Psychology major, Marcy Lewis, to speak on behalf of students across the state of Illinois during a Save the Map Grant rally at SIU Edwardsville Thursday, October 8. The event was just one in a series of activities organized by Governor Pat Quinn to support the Illinois Monetary Award Program (MAP).

Illinois MAP is a need-based grant funded by the Illinois Student Assistance Commission (ISAC). Currently, the program faces a $200 million dollar shortfall and funds will run out in January 2010. More than 137,000 Illinois residents receive the MAP grant to attend colleges in state. More than 400 of those students attend Greenville College (GC).

Marcy Lewis is one of GC's 400. Lewis is the first in her family to attend college. At the rally she explained, "I am a role model for children in my family as well as in my community. Because I have gone to college I have inspired and encouraged my mother to begin taking online classes toward a business degree and because my mother is going to college we have both encouraged my sister to start taking classes. Without the MAP Grant, my mother and sister will no longer be able to continue their education." Without the MAP Grant, Lewis will have to take over $17,000 of loans to complete her degree.

"The MAP Grant does not just affect my biological family; it greatly affects my family at Greenville College," Lewis explained during her speech, "Without the MAP Grant four of my seven roommates will not be able to continue to go to college and they will have to make some very tough decisions. Their names are Anna, Angela, Alex and Jennifer. They are women with hopes and dreams and they are pursuing them through education. Without the MAP Grant 1/3 of Greenville College is greatly affected and we can only imagine the projections happening at colleges all over the state."

Lewis then turned to Governor Quinn and made her appeal on behalf of students all over the state of Illinois, "The MAP Grant does not affect one race, gender, age group or religion but it affects thousands of people across the state of Illinois and we need your help, Governor Quinn. I look to my future and in May of 2012 I will walk across the stage at Greenville College and receive my diploma, and as I do I will know that it's because you have invested in my life and you have given me hope."

On Thursday, October 15 hundreds of GC students will join thousands of other Illinois college students for a student rally and lobby at the capitol in Springfield. This event was organized to help private, public and community college students ask their state legislators to restore the $200 M in MAP funding. To learn more about this initiative and to assist students with their need, please visit the Greenville College website for more information: http://www.greenville.edu/news/detail.dot?id=119407 .

Check out the Belleville News Democrat http://www.bnd.com/news/education/story/958708.html for another piece of this story.
For more information email media@greenville.edu .