GrantAnswers: Inspiration
Founder of GrantAnswers, Cris Mercado, has helped students earn over $1 million in grants & scholarships for college/graduate study, with multiple winners funded by The Hispanic Scholarship Fund, The Posse Foundation, and The National Science Foundation. He brings a decade of professional experience, which includes work with TRIO Upward Bound, The Foundation Center, and the U.S. Dept. of Commerce's Broadband Technology Opportunities Program.
Yet, it is his personal journey that fuels the urgency with which GrantAnswers operates.
Cris was accepted to New York University with a generous financial aid package that was rescinded because of ineligibility. He went on to the City College of New York (CCNY), where he became an undergraduate fellow and earned multiple awards. At age 21, he went on to the CUNY Graduate Center's Ph.D. Program in Criminal Justice and was offered its MAGNET scholarship. This scholarship worth over $75,000 was also rescinded. Despite having over $100,000 taken away, Cris still navigated 9 years of post-secondary education without debt. In fact, he made a profit by going to college & graduate school.
In August 2013, GrantAnswers LLC was formed with an underlying mission of ensuring that the talents and the accomplishments of promising youth do not go to waste.