Scholarships are about more than dollars and cents. They’re about dreams and opportunities. Scholarships clear a path between hope and success in a world cluttered with challenges.

Just ask Katrinalee Blake of Bath. Katrinalee, who graduated from Morse High School this past June, now attends Southern Maine Community College and plans to earn a degree in early childhood development.

Katrinalee works 20 to 25 hours a week at a day care center in Bath while carrying a full class load. Without an SMCC Foundation award, she’d have to work full-time while also going to school full-time — a tough undertaking by anyone’s standards.

Her grant allows her to work part-time and pay more attention to her studies. In this age of excessive student debt, she says she’ll owe less when she graduates.

More importantly, the grant is helping Katrinalee achieve her longtime dream of working with young children. After she graduates, she hopes to work at the Bowdoin College day care center to get more work experience under her belt. She then plans to go back to school for a bachelor’s degree in childhood development.

Katrinalee is one of more than 200 SMCC students who have been awarded a total of nearly $204,000 in scholarships for the 2013-14 academic year. The scholarship funds come from the generosity of businesses, civic groups, community leaders and individuals who appreciate the value of SMCC’s mission. The SMCC Foundation raises money each year for academic programs, classrooms and equipment, and scholarships for deserving students.

This week a dinner will honor scholarship recipients and donors. Hard-working students and their generous benefactors will be recognized and celebrated for fulfilling the dream of higher education.

Research shows that scholarships lessen the impact of tuition costs while allowing students to devote more time to their studies. They reduce the amount of money students need to borrow and they demonstrate the positive impact of philanthropy.

Scholarships remove financial barriers that can delay or even derail people’s dreams of earning a college degree. When life is cluttered with financial and family obligations, even the thought of going to college can be daunting. Scholarships empower people and enable progress.

Maine’s community colleges are proud to be the most affordable colleges in New England, at only $2,640 per year in tuition for full-time students who are Maine residents. Still, people make sacrifices to go to college. A recent survey showed that about 25 percent of SMCC’s matriculated students work fulltime and about 43 percent work part-time.

Scholarships are one way we lighten the load. No one can disagree with Katrinalee Blake when she says that every bit helps.

RONALD G. CANTOR, Ph.D., is president of Southern Maine Community College.