Nationwide, many students who enroll in community college programs fail to persist in postsecondary education or complete a credential. The Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MnSCU) Two-Year Occupational Grant Pilot Program (the Occupational Grant) was a financial aid program designed to increase persistence and completion rates through free community college tuition. The grant was awarded to 2016 high school graduates who were pursuing in-demand career and technical credentials during the 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 academic years. The grant was a last-dollar scholarship available to students with family adjusted gross incomes (AGIs) of $90,000 or less with outstanding tuition and fees after other sources of aid were applied. The grant was designed to incentivize students to complete their programs within the expected timeframe for students enrolled full-time. It was renewable for a second academic year only for students pursuing credentials of more than 30 credits. Prior to this study, there was no causal information on whether the Occupational Grant met its goals of increasing persistence and completion rates for recipients. Using student-level state data, this study examined whether the Occupational Grant initiative had positive impacts on persistence rates from the first to second academic year for recipients enrolled in renewal-eligible programs and on all grant recipients' on-time postsecondary credential completion rates. The study employed a quasi-experimental inverse probability weighted regression adjustment (IPWRA) methodology to compare grant recipients' outcomes to two groups of observationally similar students. The comparison groups included 2016 high school graduates who met the eligibility requirements for the Occupational Grant but did not receive it and 2012-2015 high school graduates who would have been eligible for the grant had it been available to them. Across both comparison groups, the IPWRA analyses consistently found that the Occupational Grant led to higher first-to-second-year persistence and on-time completion rates for recipients relative to observationally similar students. Receipt of the award increased the probability that students would persist by at least 7.4 percentage points and the probability that they would complete a credential on time by approximately eight percentage points. These results indicated that the Occupational Grant achieved its policy objectives of increasing persistence and on-time completion rates for recipients so that they could efficiently transition to employment. In addition to demonstrating that the Occupational Grant positively impacted recipients' postsecondary outcomes, this study added to the overall body of literature on financial aid programs providing free tuition to community college students. It examined the persistence and completion effects of a free community college program that specifically targeted career and technical education students. In addition, the study defined completion in terms of on-time completion, a shorter timeframe than previous studies examining the impacts of similar programs. The study provided additional evidence that relatively low-cost, last-dollar scholarship initiatives can incentivize community college students enrolled in career-oriented programs to persist in college and complete credentials. [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.]