Not long after she helped launch Aspirations in Computing – an initiative meant to encourage high school girls to pursue careers in technology – Ruthe Farmer began to notice how many program participants were sharing stories of hardship on social media as they strove to make it through college.
Ruthe Farmer
Having faced hard times herself as an undergraduate, Farmer began to intervene on behalf of students who were running low on cash. Sometimes she’d tap into her social networks. Other times she’d dip into her personal funds. Her efforts helped the young women pay for the various things they needed to get through college and land a successful career. One young woman simply needed help moving from Mississippi to North Carolina so she could take advantage of a well-paying internship at a big bank.
Ultimately, Farmer’s efforts culminated in 2019 in the creation of the Last Mile Education Fund – a Colorado-based nonprofit that provides financial assistance to students majoring in tech or engineering and who’ve gotten at least halfway through school. The organization has since awarded $14.1 million to more than 11,000 students.
Collaborators praise the Last Mile Education Fund for providing critical help to students during the home stretch of their academic journey.
“Last Mile Education Fund is a necessary part of this journey for many students,” says Dwana Franklin-Davis, CEO of Reboot Representation, a New York City-based nonprofit that invests in efforts to help Black, Latina, and Native American women and girls make inroads into emerging technological fi elds.
“Where we think about potential and opportunity, the financial aspect shouldn’t be a blocker,” Franklin-Davis says. “And so many students may get to a point and then don’t know how to get towards that last mile.”
Erika Gabrielle Hansen, strategic initiatives manager at Applied Materials, a Last Mile partner, cited a recent report that concluded more than one million additional skilled workers will be needed by 2030 to meet demand in the semiconductor industry, which produces chips needed for products such as smartphones and automobiles.
“Investing in high-potential, striving talent, grows the talent pool to support future industry growth,” Hansen says in reference to the Last Mile’s work.
For Farmer, helping students clear the final hurdles of their college careers is an investment in America’s STEM workforce.
“And our average investment per student is $1,270,” Farmer says. “It is ridiculously nominal.” But the payoff is exponential.
But the payoff is exponential.
The $2.4 Million Return
According to a five-year impact report from Last Mile, students who get an award from the organization – and complete their degree – will earn $32,500 more during their first year of graduation than those who didn’t finish school. Over the course of a lifetime, they will earn $2.4 million more than their peers who didn’t graduate. They also rely less on public assistance – about $875,000 less than they would have otherwise, the report states.
They also help fill critical jobs.
“We should be making education as accessible as possible to anyone who’s willing, because the jobs of the future are going to require high levels of critical thinking and cognitive load,” Farmer says. “These are not assembly line jobs. And so if we want to have this information and innovation economy, we have to invest in the people that are going to do that work.”
Farmer says Last Mile scholars graduate at a rate of 74% – a figure that she says blows most graduation rates out of the water. Beneficiaries of the Last Mile credit the organization playing a clutch role in their quest for a college degree.
“The support from Last Mile has been a tremendous blessing in my academic journey,” says Fongwen Adrinne Butiji, who in June earned a Bachelor of Applied Science in Information Technology from Green River College in Washington State.
Butiji first got financial help and a laptop from Last Mile in 2022 and again in 2024 while working on her associate’s degree.
“Receiving assistance with my tuition fees and a laptop signifi cantly reduced the financial burden I was facing and allowed me to focus more on my studies without the constant worry of how to manage my expenses,” says Butiji. “The laptop has also been an essential tool for completing assignments, attending virtual classes, and accessing resources critical to my success in cybersecurity and networking.”
Butiji says the support motivated her to keep pushing forward and provided the much-needed confidence to complete her degree.
“I would highly encourage anyone eligible to apply for Last Mile support,” she says. “It is more than just financial assistance. It’s a way to invest in your education and future.”
Rachel Macairan, a user experience designer at Northrop Grumman, a defense and space manufacturer located in Falls Church, Virginia, fi rst learned about Last Mile from her computer science professor during her last semester at Montgomery College. She got help from Last Mile twice in 2021 and ultimately earned a bachelor’s degree in information science from the University of Maryland in 2022.
“When I applied, I was working two jobs to make university a reality,” says Macairan. “Getting support allowed me to feel more confi dent about my decision to attend university. It enabled me to make decisions based on purpose rather than fear.”
Farmer had her own run-ins with hard times well before she went to college. Yet, she credits those experiences with making her more empathetic to the plight of the students the Last Mile serves.
“We moved a lot,” Farmer recalls. “I can’t even tell you how many schools I went to while I was in K-12. I did manage to go to one middle school and two high schools. But K through 5 was all over the place.
“So,I had a lot of instability in moving around a lot as a kid and, you know, once in a while living in our car,” Farmer says. “I thought we were camping, but we were living in our car. And so I just have this deep empathy for people who struggle in the way that I did.”
Farmer graduated from Stayton High School and got accepted into a state college as well as Lewis & Clark, a private liberal arts college in Portland, Oregon.
“I ended up going to Lewis & Clark because they gave me a full ride,” Farmer recalls. “I still ended up taking out loans and having to do work-study, but they just wrote off about $15,000 of tuition.”
It wasn’t easy being a poor kid on campus. An older sibling had dropped out of college, souring her parents on providing any further money for school.
My parents sort of drove up and tossed me out the truck with a trunk and some blankets and a trash bag and off they went,” Farmer remembers. “And so it was a bit of a wake-up call being there because it was, you know, a private college and most of the kids were actually coming from very wealthy families. But I made my way and graduated in four years because I had to because, you know, if you’re coming from poverty, you don’t have any extra time or cash.”
Farmer’s work on increasing girls’ participation in technology and engineering spans several decades and includes a stint in the White House. She joined the Girls Scouts in Portland, Oregon as program manager for STEM education in 2001 and moved to New York City in 2005 to serve as technology and engineering manager for the Girl Scouts’ national organization.
That experience – coupled with her time as chief strategy and growth offi cer for the National Center for Women in Information Technology, helped prepare her for the opportunity of a lifetime – serving as Senior Policy Advisor for Tech Inclusion at the White House Offi ce of Science & Technology Policy under President Barack Obama. At the White House, Farmer focused on President Obama’s call to action for Computer Science for All.
No Hoops, Just Hope Being in need has helped shape Farmer’s philosophy on how best to help college students. She doesn’t believe in making students fi ll out a lot of paperwork or “perform” their poverty. Mentors and social networks are good, but sometimes it comes down to cash, Farmer says.
“So we are saying yes to every qualifi ed student,” Farmer says. “And we are investing with abundance in as many students who have a shot at graduating as possible, because we think that is a better way of resourcing talent than, you know, having some kind of popularity or beauty contest of who’s the best out of this large group. And we don’t compare students against each other at all. We just say: Are you in [a STEM] major? Do you have fi nancial need? Do you have a shot at graduation?”
If the answer is yes, then Last Mile provides an award without restrictions on how to use it.
“And I’d love to see other scholarships and funders take that kind of an approach,” Farmer says.
Listen here to "In the Margins" podcast with Ruthe Farmer.
