Application season is in full effect over at College Connect. Our office is bustling as seniors are working hard to submit CSU and UC applications before the November 30th deadline.
For a first-in-their-family student, attending college isn’t just a big milestone for each student personally. Rather, it’s a huge step for the entire community. Universities and private foundations across the country recognize this achievement with scholarships. For many first-generation students and families, the most stressful part of pursuing a college education can be the concerns over college costs. When should you fill out financial aid forms? How do you go about applying? How will I pay for all of this? For answers, College Connect is always available to support our students.
In addition to helping students apply to the FASFA or Dream Act, College Connect also pushes our students to apply to as many scholarships as possible. By using scholarship funds to supplement their financial aid, the majority of College Connectors can attend college loan free.
Luri Chen Zheng, a College Connect Cohort 5 student at UC Berkeley whose education is funded by scholarships, has some words of wisdom for our high school students. “Applying for scholarships is one of the greatest opportunities you can get while you are in high school. Not everyone has the resources like you – being a part of College Connect – to pursue a higher education.” Allen Li, another Cohort 5 student and a Gates Millennium scholar at UC Berkeley, advises “It is extremely important to take advantage of resources and scholarships out there, as they can open doors and bring opportunities in education and in life.”
This year we are hosting a scholarship contest, and during our annual holiday potluck will be awarding an iPad Mini to the cohort 6 student who has applied to the most scholarships in 2013. So far Gabriela Flores, and Stephanie Rocha are in the lead – to date they have each submitted 6 scholarship applications!
Stay tuned to hear which students will win the iPad Mini – and to hear how much scholarship funding is raised by cohort 6 this year!
“College is not only about having the knowledge, but having the resources. Now is the time that I need to prevent later stress when it gets to paying tuition” says Jackeline Callejas, a cohort 6 senior at John O’Connell High School. “At the end it will be worth all of the dedication and hard work I am putting into my applications.”