Eastern will receive a $116,400 grant from the Illinois Board of Higher Education for the Illinois Cooperative Work Study Program.

The measure was approved at Monday’s IBHE meeting at Triton College in River Grove.

“The whole idea of the program is for Illinois universities to form a partnership with Illinois business,” said Dan Crews, grant manager of the work study program.

“Students have a favorable experience, and a great number of them go on to full-time employment with that company.”

The program pays for up to 50 percent of the salaries for students involved in work study or internship opportunities. The program is available to students in 12 to 13 departments across the colleges, Crews said.

The grant Eastern will receive is the second highest amount out of 44 university and colleges that were awarded the grant.

Crews said Eastern’s grant amount was “very exciting.”

“It is an honor to get that high of an amount. I think that shows that they like what we are doing here,” Crews said.

For the past two or three years, Crews said Eastern has placed either second or third in the grant amount that was awarded.

“Our recruits have gotten very high marks with the employers they have internshiped with in terms of being able to do the job and possessing the skills,” Crews said.

Eastern applied for a grant of $134,000 and ended up receiving a $116,400 in the end.

“You aim high. I think they cut everyone’s award down across the board,” Crews said.

As long as the state continues to offer the program, Crews said Eastern will keep applying.