With tuition increasing at a faster rate than inflation, many college students depend on grants to access education. The largest of these, the federally funded Pell Grant, subsidizes over 30 billion a year worth of tuition for eligible students (Cardona, 2023) yet no longer meets its goal of covering 75% percent of tuition costs. While the Department of Education (ED) does not measure Pell-recipient outcomes, research shows mixed results (Carruthers & Welch, 2019; Denning, 2019; Denning et al., 2019; Eng & Matsudaira, 2021; Goldrick-Rab et al., 2016; Kelchen, 2017). Much is known about the "inputs" to the program, but from an evaluative perspective, not much is known about what happens in the middle, identified as the missing "mechanism" (Eng & Matsudaira, 2021, p. 450). Some research explores what causes students to fail or persist (Goldrick-Rab, 2016), but the reasons can be varied and intersectional. Additionally, minimal research focuses on community colleges, where over a third of Pell-eligible students study. This mixed-methods study surveys Pell-eligible community college students, with a semi-structured interview given to a sub-sample. It aims to add to the literature from the student perspective, taking into account interaction with other institutional initiatives, with the purpose of helping develop a normative model of student success that can be applied when discussing the impact of federal student aid. Findings confirm the need for and offer a suggestion for a framework that can interpret the impact of a variety of student success programs. Additionally, findings highlight the gap between receiving Pell and having "enough," and the knowledge gaps that Pell-eligible students have in understanding their aid. This study frames the student as a "user" within the higher education ecosystem and emphasizes the need to develop program logic for the Pell and improve communication between the ED, the institutions that receive the aid, and the students who should be benefiting from it. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]