The 40th anniversary of Pell Grants, the student loan program championed by the late Rhode Island U.S. Sen. Claiborne Pell, will be celebrated at a daylong event in New York City later this summer.

“Pell Grants: Celebrating 40 Years of Educational Access” will be held Sept. 7 at the Marriott Marquis in New York. It’s hosted by the Washington-based Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education, the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators and the College Board.

Members of the late senator’s family including Clay Pell, a U.S. Coast Guard lieutenant and White House Fellow, will be joined by Martha Kanter, an education undersecretary in the Obama administration, and other policymakers, educators, administrators and Pell Grant recipients to commemorate the program.

There will also be a screening of the new 90-minute documentary “Pell Grants: A Passion for Education,” which looks at the behind-the-scenes battle in Congress to pass the program. The film was partly funded by a $7,500 grant from the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities. Watch the movie’s trailer here.

• Related: Photo: Clinton, Jack Reed and Claiborne Pell on Air Force One (June 21)