As the sun begins to set on an August evening, Emma Mason strides onto a glowing pasture on her family’s farm near Mineral Point, Wisconsin, and shouts to her three younger siblings, “Who’s bangin’ buckets tonight?”
Ben, 14, jumps off his four-wheeler, grabs two five-gallon pails, and starts bashing them together.
“That’s the dinner bell for cows,” Mason says. Dozens of black Angus purebred cattle saunter in, including Belle, whom Mason purchased in 2017 — her first heifer.
The farm is just an hour southwest of Madison but far from her other life at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where she’s a freshman agricultural business management major in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences.
Mason always wanted to attend UW–Madison, but finances made it feel out of reach.
“The joke was that the only way she could ever go to Madison would be if she got a full-ride scholarship,” says her mom, Rose Mason-Gould.
Consider it done. Mason is one of about 1,150 new freshmen and transfer students this fall benefiting from Bucky’s Pell Pathway, now in its second year. Through the initiative, UW–Madison pledges to meet the full financial need for four years for all first-year students who are Wisconsin residents and qualify for Federal Pell Grants. The grants play a critical role in expanding college access for students in low-income households. The UW–Madison initiative goes even further — covering not just full tuition and fees but also housing, meals, books and most other educational expenses.
Read the full article online: https://news.wisc.edu/from-cattle-farmer-to-college-freshman-buckys-pell-pathway-eases-the-way/