November 8 is recognized as First-Generation College Celebration Day. As a first-generation college student myself, this day reminds me that being the first isn’t easy, but it is impactful. It’s about overcoming obstacles and creating opportunities that didn’t exist before. Here’s some advice for other first-generation college students navigating their own journey.

1. Choose your college location wisely. The location of your college plays a major role in both your first-year experience and future opportunities. Consider attending a school in a city where you could see yourself living after graduation to help you adjust to the area and build local connections. Many colleges partner with nearby companies, making it easier to find internships or your first job. Also, think about safety and accessibility. Is the city walkable or supported by public transportation? These details matter, especially if you are a first-year student who can’t bring your car.
   
   
2. Join a summer bridge program. If your school offers a summer bridge program, take advantage of the opportunity. These programs allow you to move in early, meet other incoming students, and get acclimated to campus before the first day of classes. It’s a great advantage for an easier transition to college, making friends, and starting the semester strong.
   
   
3. Take advantage of campus resources early. Many students aren’t knowledgeable about the free resources colleges offer. From academic advising and tutoring to counseling and writing centers, these resources are all designed to support students. I personally wish I had used them earlier, instead of waiting until I was stressed or struggling. Visit these offices during your first semester, even if you don’t need them just yet.
   
   
4. Build relationships with professors and advisors. Your professors and advisors are some of the most valuable connections you’ll make in college. Building relationships with them can open the door to mentorship opportunities, recommendation letters, and additional academic support. I make it a point to visit office hours and meet with my advisor regularly to ensure I’m on track.
   
   
5. Be smart with your money. If you receive a financial aid refund, save it. It’s very easy to spend it right away, but that money might be what saves you when unexpected expenses arrive, such as books, groceries, or application fees. Managing your money in college is one of the most important habits you should learn early as a young adult.
   
   
6. Research TRIO Programs. If your school has a TRIO program, join it. TRIO offers special resources and guidance for first-generation and low-income students. Through TRIO, you can access academic support, workshops, and even financial assistance. Being a part of a program like TRIO can be incredibly meaningful and introduce you to other students with similar backgrounds.
   
   
7. Invest in your professional development. While college mainly consists of classes, it is built to prepare you for your future career. Attend career fairs and networking events, even as a first-year student. It’s never too early to start building connections. I also recommend building a business professional closet, so you are ready for interviews or other professional settings.
   
   
8. Step outside of your comfort zone. As a first-generation student, it’s important to take advantage of the opportunity of attending college while also allowing yourself to enjoy the experience. While academics should remain a priority, make time to explore your interests outside the classroom. Join two to three clubs or organizations during your first year to build connections, develop new skills, and create a well-rounded college experience.

Being a first-generation college student comes with its own unique set of challenges, but it also brings strength and resilience. By leveraging resources, fostering connections, and stepping outside their comfort zone, first-generation college students can navigate their journey with confidence and maximize their college experience.

Read More:

• Students Share Perspectives at #NCAN2025: “It's Not Easy, But It's Totally Worth It.”
• Why Internships Matter: A First- Generation Student's Perspective
• “We All Deserve Education”: What Students Had to Say About NCAN’s 2025 Leadership Summit

Reading time: Five minutes

“Being in college has been a blessing. College is the opportunity to grow and be the person I am today. To have a family that was there to be with me through it all. It’s a thing not only for my parents, family, and friends to be proud of but also for myself. To participate in the opportunity that college gave me gave me the drive to be the person I am today.”

The testimonial above exemplifies and encapsulates the stories of so many students served by National College Attainment Network (NCAN) members across the country over the past 30 years. This particular testimonial, however, came from Ravien Burns, an alumna of Dillard University (New Orleans, LA) and CG Consulting Media Scholar, who shared her experience during the Student Voices plenary at NCAN's 2025 National Conference in NOLA.

Burns was joined by two other students. First, Alyssa Medrano, a junior at Delgado Community College (New Orleans, LA) majoring in psychological sciences and sociology served by the NOLA College and Career Attainment Network (NOLA CCAN) and Generation Hope. Second, by Lucas Estrada, a student double majoring in accounting and business analytics at Loyola University New Orleans served by Puentes New Orleans. The panel was moderated by Stephanie Joncas, Social Impact Partnership Manager at Equitable.

“It’s important to reflect on one simple truth: the power of student voices,” said Joncas. “When you take a moment to fully listen to students’ voices, we move from good intention to real impact. Voices make changes to programs that reflect real challenges and the problems students face. Inclusive and transformative change can come to programs through student voices.”

Each panelist shared what getting their college degree meant to them and their family.

“To give value to the sacrifice of my mom,” said Estrada. “She put me in college. She believed in me since the beginning. It’s breaking a cycle, being the first one of my family. I don’t want to be a model for my sisters, but I want to show them a way they can go through so they can have the same opportunity my mom gave me.”

Medrano also noted the opportunities college affords her. “Stability and opportunity, the things I would love to chase in my life, come from getting a college degree. It is important for my growth and for those who come after me. Especially being a teen mom, the statistics for graduating before [age] 30 is less than 2%. This pushes me forward. Not just for me but for my son and for those who came before me.”

Medrano found a valuable push through Generation Hope, which focuses on serving student parents and which is celebrating its two-year anniversary in New Orleans. “Generation Hope has been a big support system where it’s giving me resources I need like tutoring or degree acceleration funds to get my books,” explained Medrano. She also noted really strong support from her family, which provides childcare while Medrano is in class. “Those two are my village, my support that I cling to a lot.”

Estrada found a similar push through Puentes. “At the beginning when I was in high school and trying to get help getting into college, the hardest part was to find that help to find that way to get into school,” he explained. “I went every day into my counselor’s office. She got tired of seeing me every day. Sadly, I didn’t get the support in my high school. I had to go out. I met Puentes. They gave me everything I needed – them and my mom. The community I found were like me, who need help, and I like to be there and not ignore people like I was ignored once.”

Burns, for her part, is also working to provide supports to others. “Mentorship is the biggest thing, especially now. To listen, to really listen, [students are] here to be the leaders of tomorrow, but it also depends on people being there to be the shoulder they can lean on and get support and opportunities from to really help them see their potential.” She urged the audience, “Don’t gatekeep on anything. There are so many opportunities that are out there.” She cited two mentors in Dillard’s Mass Communications program who made connections to CG Consulting, which then connected Burns to other opportunities. She wants that for other students as well: “to have all of you to be there to listen to us, that is the biggest change that a student can have in their life.”

The narrative around questioning the value of college has become prevalent in recent years, and the student panelists addressed this as well.

Burns noted: “Attending college is ‘worth it.’ Every moment you’ll have challenges, highs, lows, but it was all worth it to get my degree. People will say, ‘It’s a paper,’ but it’s not just a paper, you earned it. It’s something you can look back on and really say you did it. It is worth it, it’s something to really take in to know that it’s something to look forward and not take for granted.”

Estrada admitted that “there are many ways to be successful in life,” but also noted that “college is the safest one, for me.” Noting the huge investment both in economics and time commitment, he said “If there are people who have the opportunity to go to college, they should. It is worth it, but it is not easy, but it is totally worth it.”

The student voice plenary has become a reliable source of inspiration in recent years as it lifts up the perspectives and experiences of those served by NCAN members every day. This year’s edition was no different. On behalf of the NCAN staff, I’d like to thank Burns, Medrano, and Estrada for sharing their time and enthusiasm with the #NCAN2025 audience. We surely wish the very best for you moving forward, as do the more than a thousand conference attendees invested in your futures.

Read More:

• Conference Panelists Call for Courage to Meet Political Moment
• Cheers to 30 Years: Highlights from NCAN’s 2025 National Conference
• FSA Shares FAFSA Successes and Policy Updates at #NCAN2025

July 31 is National Intern Day, a time to celebrate the contributions of interns across various industries. It is also an opportunity to reflect on why internships are particularly important for first-generation college students.  Internships are more than a resume booster - they are a from of access. 

According to Strada, securing a paid internship is linked to a predicted increase in annual wages of over $3,000. Despite this significant wage increase, women, people of color, first-generation college students, and students who struggle to afford their education are far less likely to secure paid internship opportunities.  While internships can improve postgraduate outcomes, this gap reflects the broader challenges of navigating the hidden curriculum of higher education– the unspoken rules, expectations, and norms that play a critical role in a student’s post-secondary success. First-generation college students often encounter challenges in finding and applying for internships because they are navigating unfamiliar systems with minimal guidance. 

Internships provide opportunities to build social connections, navigate professional environments, and stay motivated toward long-term goals - concepts central to Yosso’s Community Cultural Wealth Model. This framework recognizes the unique strengths and assets that students from marginalized backgrounds bring to educational and professional environments. Students gain access to mentors, expand their networks, and explore potential career paths while strengthening key skills such as communication, time management, and adaptability. 

Beyond technical skills, internships provide exposure to workplace environments, allowing students to explore their interests, strengths, and goals. Internships empower students with limited professional connections to bridge the gap between college and their future careers. They offer invaluable experiences and insights that go beyond academic coursework, paving the way for personal and professional growth. 

The Hidden Curriculum and Learning to Navigate It 

My journey reflects this reality. As a first-generation college student, I initially lacked the tools to stand out as a candidate. However, that began to change when I participated in the Braven Accelerator, a program that provided one-on-one advising opportunities and career development skills. Through Braven, I learned how to build a strong resume, prepare for interviews, and approach professional environments with confidence and authenticity. It was a turning point for my academic and personal goals. 

The Braven Accelerator showed me the value of seeking support. One of the biggest pieces of advice I can offer is: you are not alone. College campuses are full of resources designed to support students. Whether it's reaching out to an academic advisor, dropping by the career center, or reaching out to a professor, taking the first step can lead to valuable opportunities for growth. Don’t overlook your peer network either; asking friends to review your resume can offer fresh perspectives and help you strengthen it in ways you might not have considered. 

How to Find Internships (Even When You Don’t Know Where to Start) 

If you are considering applying for internships, it's crucial to familiarize yourself with application cycles and how to use available resources effectively. Understanding this process can make a significant difference in your application! 

• Fall internship applications typically open during the summer 
• Spring internships applications typically open in September 
• Summer internship applications typically open in late fall or early winter 

Start early and give yourself time to revise and review your application materials! Platforms like Handshake and LinkedIn can help facilitate your search. Leverage your strengths through Yosso’s Community Cultural Wealth Model. It’s essential to shift the focus toward highlighting students' strengths, such as navigational capital, as we tackle challenges in complex systems. 

You Already Have What It Takes

National Intern Day is a great reminder that internships open doors to future opportunities, but the process of securing one isn’t always straightforward. If you’re a first-generation student feeling uncertain or behind, know that you already have what it takes to succeed. Your ability to navigate unfamiliar systems is a strength, not a setback!

Read More: 

• Equitable and Road to Hire are Closing the FAFSA Gap
• How Goal Setting Helps Students Become Motivated for Postsecondary Goals
• Use College-Going Identity "Statuses" In Advising to Better Support Students

The National College Attainment Network (NCAN) hosted its inaugural Leadership Summit in Washington, DC, March 31-April 1, 2025. Through numerous panels with higher education leaders and meetings with federal representatives and policymakers, attendees felt empowered and excited to speak up and share their thoughts and feelings on the current state of higher education.

Some attendees were students, who came along either with their school or nonprofit organization. Student voices are powerful and have shaped higher education discourse throughout US history. When students receive platforms to share their opinions on advocacy, college access, and equity and access, they can provide a fresh perspective on why higher education is important and impacts communities across racial, socioeconomic, and geographic boundaries.

We had a chance to chat with Reyhan Kilic, a freshman at the University of Texas-Austin; Shayla Ashton, a junior at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Blacksburg, VA); and Morgan Washington, a student at Howard University (Washington, DC), about their backgrounds, interests, and dreams, as well as policy and advocacy. We thank the students for taking time out of their busy schedules to speak with NCAN.

Note: Quotes have been edited for clarity

How did you become involved in advocacy? Is this your first time engaging in something like this? If so, how did you come to know about this opportunity?

Kilic, Ashton, and Washington cited their educational and personal backgrounds as reasons why they attended the Leadership Summit. Kilic talked about the privilege she held as a student at UT-Austin and the need for her to advocate for others. She said she was relatively new to advocacy but had been to a few conferences related to education advocacy and awareness.

Kilic: “I thought it was important to bring the torch and advocate for others that needed help.”

Ashton discussed being a part of a scholarship foundation that supports families from low- and middle-income backgrounds and first-generation students and her desire to share her stories. She also said she attended the Leadership Summit to talk about the necessity of scholarship programs, like the one she is a part of, to support students in their college attainment journeys.

Ashton: “We're here to share our stories about where we came from and our family, some of them who are immigrants, as well as some who didn't go to college as a first-generation person.”

Washington said she has been a student voice advocate since her senior year of high school. She took on leadership roles with the clubs she was affiliated with but wanted to expand her advocacy at the Leadership Summit as her school invited her to attend.

Washington: “I felt I had to step up, express my opinions. What brought me here was the school that I graduated from, they invited me to be in this space and learn more about the student life.”

What are the causes you are advocating for today and tomorrow?

Kilic, Ashton, and Washington all said financial aid was the biggest cause they wanted to advocate for. Morgan recognized the obstacles that Black and Brown students face in obtaining proper financial aid and wished for more opportunities to financial college support.

Washington: “We all deserve education and we deserve a chance to want better ourselves.”

Ashton agreed and said that her scholarship was the main reason why she is able to attend college, despite her at-home community being predominantly low-income and most of her community members not having a college degree. She wanted greater access to programs that assist K-12 students in their college attainment journeys.

Ashton: “I'm from a low-income area, so a lot of people where I'm from didn't go to college because they couldn't afford it and they didn't really think that they could afford it. I'm only in college right now because of the scholarship that I got.”

Kilic, similarly to Washington and Ashton, said financial aid and the Pell Grant were her most urgent causes. She said she supports programs that “connect and unite people for the education system that is being damaged currently,” especially for first-generation and first-time college students.

As you're engaging in talks these two days, are there stories or people in mind that you are hoping to advocate for?

The three students shared a mix of advancing existing college access programs and advocating for education in their responses. Kilic, a current participant in an AmeriCorps program, specifically Breakthrough Collaborative, shared her experiences chatting with her sister, a member of the GEAR UP program at UT-Austin, and learning more about the importance of college access organizations in supporting students’ desires to reach higher education.

Kilic: “It's thinking about those students that don't have as many opportunities and didn't get the chance that I got or my sister got to advance her education.”

Ashton said she did not have a specific policy in mind at the moment of the interview, as long as she could advocate for people’s personal stories and help people fill out the FAFSA, or Free Application for Federal Student Aid.

Ashton: “Me and my other friends were talking earlier about having families who don't have any college experience at all, or immigrant families where you don't know how to fill out the FAFSA, or you don't have the necessary tools.”

Washington affirmed Ashton and said she expresses sympathy for low-income households and households of color. Kilic added on and said it is crucial for students to advocate for what’s important, despite the world’s challenges.

Kilic: “It doesn't matter because if you want to do right, if you want to help people and if you see your success and you're like, ‘I'm successful, I was able to take the next step,’ it's important to advocate for yourself and be like, ‘Look, I did this, and other people can too.’”

How have recent events related to federal and state K-12 and higher education policy impacted the causes that you plan to advocate for?

All three students noted funding and economic inequities as ways that recent changes to federal and state K-12 and higher education policies will impact their advocacy work. Washington dove into geographical and disability inequities and expressed worry for how students who come from rural areas, like herself, or have a disability will enter college under the recent higher education policy changes. According to her, cuts in higher education will make attending a US college more financially difficult.

Washington: “I know back home for me, like a rural area, I know it's definitely going to affect where I'm from resource-wise because, especially all special education students, and other small programs to help people who have disabilities, are definitely going to take a hit.”

Washington also shared worry about the socioeconomic inequities that will come about with the new policy changes to higher education. She said that families from higher-income backgrounds will be the only folx able to attend college with the new policy changes and families from low-income backgrounds will suffer.

Washington: “When you feed the privilege too much that's all we're going to have left and then everyone else is just going to be just left out.”

Similarly to Ashton and Washington, Kilic called out the growing socioeconomic gap in higher education and the recent slash in funding to the US Department of Education sends a message that students do not have power. She said it is challenging to be a student because students are losing their freedom of speech and need to keep fighting for what they have. But she pleaded for students to continue fighting because, “even if it's going to make a small difference, it's still something because maybe no one is going to do it. If we don't do it, who's going to do it?”

Kilic: “I'm a Texan, I'm here and I'm advocating for us because we deserve it. Listen to me as a student.”

How are you feeling leading up to Hill Day? Are you nervous, excited, a little bit of both?

The students’ emotions leading up to Hill Day ranged from nervousness to excitement. Ashton said that while she felt a little nervous because this experience was very novel, she felt ready to share her personal stories and understand why her stories connect with people across ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. She appreciated the opportunity to chat with folx who were also passionate about higher education.

Ashton: “It’s also important for me to learn how to convey my stories of my own personal experiences, as well as you know why it affects people like myself and other different ethnic and income groups.”

Kilic said she was proud of herself for attending the Leadership Summit and felt excited about Hill Day because she always wanted to go to Washington, DC. She recognized she was in a group that supported each other despite their individual political affiliations. She said she wants people regardless of political beliefs to unite but recognizes it is difficult to do that with the current media landscape.

Kilic: “It's really important for everyone to see that we're in this together. If you're not in the top one or 10, 20% in the US, we're all in the same boat.”

Washington felt both excited and nervous for the opportunity to visit the Hill because, as a first-year college student, she celebrates her ability to advocate at the Capitol for the first time. She said she will use this opportunity to expand her public speaking and advocacy skills.

Washington: “Not a lot of people get this opportunity and, thankfully with me being a first-year, I get this opportunity to go to the Capitol and advocate.”

What do you hope to bring back to your campus in terms of knowledge from this summit?

Kilic, Ashton, and Washington were excited to bring skills and perspectives back to their respective campuses after the Leadership Summit. Kilic said she was excited to bring back new experiences and be more open-minded to folx from different parts of the world. She was also excited to improve her leadership and communications skills while being hopeful of her community’s new leaders.

Kilic: I would hope to bring back new perspectives and another open-minded experience, seeing that even though you're in one place or one situation doesn't mean the entire world or US is like that."

Ashton agreed with Kilic and said she became more open-minded to people of different political beliefs and wants to bring compassion and legislative skills back to her campus.

Ashton: “Bringing that back with telling other people, ‘Hey, think about it away from the political party and just think of us as both people and we both want the same end goal.’”

Washington agreed with Kilic and Ashton and said she would like to give everyone hope. As a student at a historically Black college and university (HBCU), she said everyone thinks HBCUs will struggle but she encourages people to, “use your speech, your voice is important, and it's special and use it because...we just need to come together and we just need our voices to be heard.”

Kilic continued and said she looks up to leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X and quoted the latter's words of how if you do not stand for something, then you will fall for anything. She called for a need for leaders who help people fight for human rights.

Ashton also said that the people whose voices needed to be heard were not necessarily present at the Leadership Summit, but she and other attendees can return back to their campuses and advocate for their voices.

Is there anything else you would like to share with us or any questions that haven’t been asked?

Kilic and Ashton called for more people to continue advocating for what they believe in through stronger media. Kilic wanted more people to speak out about issues they were passionate about because once people begin advocating, then more people will see their advocacy work and also want to organize.

Kilic: “What we stand for is so important.”

Ashton said what people do not change is what people are choosing to continue to exist. If people are not proactive about changing governmental actions, then change will not happen, she said. Ashton wanted a stronger push for advocacy and legislative organizing because, as Kilic similarly said, if one person advocates, then another person may join.

Ashton: “Once you talk about it, somebody else might get compelled to talk about it and start writing a letter to somebody or talking to their local legislation.”

Students rarely have opportunities to express their opinions on the current state of higher education and why their voices are important. When community organizers and elected officials come to students to hear their concerns, they will learn something new that they cannot hear from adult leaders, whether that is a personal story or a call to action.

Special thanks to Elizabeth Wood, former NCAN Program Fellow, for interviewing the students and helping write this article. 

Read More:

• Two Days in DC that I’ll Never Forget: Reflecting on NCAN’s Inaugural Leadership Summit
• Student Voices Show Benefits of Expanding Student Supports
• Test Anxiety and the Student’s Struggle

I had the opportunity to attend the National College Attainment Network (NCAN)’s inaugural Leadership Summit in Washington, DC, last week in an official capacity: as the organization’s Communications Intern. Although I have always been passionate about educational justice and legislative advocacy and I regularly visit the nation's capital, I have never had an experience quite like the Leadership Summit. I had the opportunity to meet a diverse set of leaders and students and learned an immense amount about the current state of higher education in the US.

Through the panel discussions on higher education data and policy and by interviewing students who attended the Summit, I had the chance to speak with individuals who pushed for progress in our field through research and community organizing. I also observed firsthand how data reveals the financial and racial disparities that still exist in higher education - and why access to supportive college environments matters so deeply for students.

I spent two days at the Leadership Summit in DC that I will never forget. I made connections with so many folx and will continue to maintain those relationships I created. Below are a few key takeaways from my experience:

Most people, regardless of political affiliation, care about higher education

The Summit hosted folx from across the political spectrum and panelists sometimes disagreed with each other on policy and solutions. However, a commonality they all shared was a passion for improving postsecondary education access and attainment. I met and saw so many people who dedicated their lives to this field and the students they serve.

We must listen to student voices

On the first day of the Summit, I interviewed several students about their experiences and hopes for the future of higher education. A common theme emerged: students want organizers to expand their advocacy efforts and for decision-makers to genuinely listen to student voices. As the primary stakeholders at colleges and universities, students have both the right and the insight to inform campus policies. They are the ones most directly impacted by changes in higher education, and their firsthand experiences offer valuable perspectives on what truly supports student success and equity.

The Hill isn’t that scary

On the second day of the Summit, I visited Capitol Hill to present NCAN’s policy recommendations to staffers from both Democratic and Republican offices. I arrived expecting resistance - I thought our proposals might be dismissed as unrealistic. Instead, I was met with openness and respect. Staffers from both sides of the aisle expressed genuine interest in higher education and a shared commitment to supporting students. I wasn’t alone in this effort; I had the encouragement of my fellow Summit attendees. Together, we spoke from our lived experiences and clearly conveyed our passion for advocacy, equity, and justice.

I thank NCAN for the chance to attend this year’s Leadership Summit and connect with like-minded folx who understand the importance of the fight for postsecondary education access and attainment. I hope this will not be my last Summit experience! 

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Reading time: Five minutes

Above: From left to right, Kerekes, Perez, Hernandez, and Velasquez

National College Attainment Network (NCAN) staff, members, and partners lend their efforts and voices every day to increasing equity and excellence in college access and attainment in the United States. Despite our collective energy, organizations also recognize a fundamental truth: the voices of the students we serve, telling their stories in their own words, are powerful, valuable, and we as a field must elevate them.

On September 18, at the closing plenary of NCAN’s 2024 National Conference in Anaheim, CA, attendees heard from three extraordinary students about their experiences in a plenary session titled “Navigating the Journey- Student Voices on Identity, Belonging, and Success.”

For the second consecutive year, Jarian Kerekes, member of the NCAN Board of Directors, Head of Social Impact at Equitable, and President of the Equitable Foundation, moderated the student panel, which included:

• Joshua Campos Velasquez, an alumnus of the USC McMorrow Neighborhood Academic Initiative (NAI) and senior at the University of Southern California (USC)
• Stalia Cerezo Perez, an alumna of Operation Jump Start and the University of California, Davis
• Yvette Hernandez, an alumna of AVID, Talent Search, and the University of California, Berkeley

A key theme highlighted by all of three of these speakers was how critical the support of college access organizations was to instilling confidence and providing guidance.

“I didn’t know college was possible until I joined AVID,” said Hernandez. “I was a first-generation student. I didn’t know this…My parents didn’t know this.” Hernandez first became engaged with AVID (an NCAN member) as an elective in middle school and then carried it through to high school, which furthered her preparation for college. She also received support from Talent Search that included college visits, conversations with admissions counselors, and a broader understanding of what to do on-campus.

Perez credits Operation Jump Start (another NCAN member) for the guidance the program provided. “Being a first-generation college student, I was lost…I didn’t have that role model.” OJS reassured Perez; “I was telling them my worries [about college],” she recalls, “And they were like, ‘No. We are going to get you there.’” She’s now dispensing similar counsel by working at OJS with students and helping them to connect with their postsecondary pathways.

Kerekes then asked the panelists about the engagement or resource they were provided that, “really made a college pathway clear” to them.

For Velasquez, who grow up in the El Sereno area of East Los Angeles (CA), it was exposure to college campus. He noted that being on-campus showed him that, “this could be me in the next four years if I work my butt off. Exposure to a college campus is what allowed me to envision my future.”

Hernandez’s experience was slightly different and revolved around talking with a financial aid advisor. “That put it into perspective that the Pell Grant was available – institutional aid, grant aid – were available…The only thing my parents could tell me was, ‘Do your best in school, work hard, get good grades.’ But when I looked at college costs, it was daunting.” The financial aid advisor emphasized the resources schools can offer to really help students.

Simone Pringle, Program Associate at NCAN, led the coordination of the panel. She notes, “I’ll say it until I’m blue in the face: student voice is so important to me. It keeps me grounded when the odds are stacked against us in the fight for what’s best for students. This plenary is my favorite part of Conference, because it’s a clear renewing of my why. Every student deserves the full range of support and resources they need to make it to and through postsecondary education.”

Those supports were critical during the matriculation phase, too. Velasquez admits, “It definitely required some vulnerability on my part to ask about navigating from high school to college.” He noted that having that support system was, “really important and valuable” to understand other students have gone through the same pathway.

Hernandez recalls that after receiving her acceptance letter from UC-Berkeley there were, “lots of people calling me from out of nowhere.” They were students from the UC-Berkeley Bridges program who wanted to congratulate Yvette on her acceptance and encourage her to commit to attending the institution. “It’s so important we have people representing us at these institutions,” emphasized Hernandez. “Bridges helped me to prepare, take classes” and complete other key activities.

Perez had a slightly different experience and remembers essentially taking the initiative herself to reach out to the school and the clubs that had Latino/a and specifically Mexican backgrounds to hear about students’ experiences on-campus and confirm (or affirm?) that she’d feel a sense of belonging upon arrival.

Asked what they wish had been more of their K-12 experience, the panelists advocated for expanding college access programs in high school so that more students receive support. Specifically, Velasquez noted that, “being able to expand and see the bigger picture…thinking more of that long term of the investment in higher education” is a horizon more students need help accessing.

All three of the panelists have a commitment to future social impact. Velasquez, “aspires to enter the commercial real estate industry, where he hopes to develop affordable housing in underserved communities.” Perez notes that her career goal is, “to help create systemic changes that reduce educational disparities and enhance opportunities for marginalized communities, ensuring that every individual can thrive regardless of their background.” Hernandez, “is deeply passionate about research and advocacy aimed at advancing equity and reducing financial and accessibility barriers to higher education.” She has already been a strong  advocate in California for changing policy related to scholarship displacement.

NCAN is grateful to these three panelists for sharing their experiences and insights. More broadly, we are grateful to all of the students who lend their voices to the mission of expanding college access and attainment nationwide.

Have a student whose voice we should feature in a future NCAN blog, webinar, or conference? Please reach out to Simone Pringle at pringles@ncan.org. 

Watch the full discussion below:

Read More:

• Member-Served Students’ Voices Add to NCAN 2023
• NCAN Gathers for National Conference to “Fight Forward”
• NCAN Members Lead the Way in the Push for College Affordability

Reading time: Four minutes

Students struggle with a variety of subjects and situations throughout their multi-year journey of university. Many students may approach their school anxieties in different ways, but of those anxieties, test anxiety continues to be a significant barrier to many students’ success. Test anxiety, or the increased stress level and panicked state faced during exam periods, contributes significantly to lower test scores¹ and higher chances of a decreased grade point average compared to non-anxious students ². In this article, we’ll cover various ways to help students handle their test anxiety effectively and safely, so that they can achieve their academic goals confidently.

Student Preparation and Study Strategy

Many students have study strategies that they’ve developed over time, strategies that they’ve carried through to their university years. Conversely, many students may also not have a study strategy at all, and have simply done well on their tests in the past by just paying attention in class. As university courses progress and increase in difficulty, these students will be faced with the unfortunate reality that their strategy will not help them succeed if it’s not improved, and as a result they will show increased levels of test anxiety and anxiety related to school in general. Providing resources on proven study strategies can help students not only do better in their studies, but can help relieve their stress and give them an increased feeling of support from their school. Resources can take multiple forms, such as study workshops once a month or once a semester, programs to pair peer study groups, pages on the school’s site detailing study methods such as the Feynman Technique or the Blurting Method for easy access.

What’s equally important when creating resources for students to improve their study strategies is to simply ask students what resources they think would benefit their studying techniques. It’s likely they have genuinely helpful insights into how certain processes could be improved, so anything from a simple mass survey to a student-faculty committee focused on improving student resources can be incredibly useful for maintaining student stress and lowering student body test anxiety.

Mental Health Support for Students

Test anxiety can be a significant barrier to not just academic performance but general daily function for students as well³. Having a strong network of mental health professionals both on campus and in the local area can help the student population thrive. Providing access to mental health resources in the forms of free therapy sessions (if provided by the school), a list of local counselors and psychiatrists, and a list of your county/state/nation’s mental health call helplines can provide students with the tools necessary to handle more significant levels of anxiety they may face on top of their testing anxiety.

Additionally, providing education on different coping mechanisms that can help test anxiety in the moment can greatly improve student test anxiety and confidence throughout their undergraduate and graduate years. For example, if they’re feeling significant stress during a test, practicing square breathing is a common technique recommended by the psychology field to significantly reduce stress in a short amount of time while also helping anxiety in the long-term⁴.

Formatting Rooms to Combat Test Anxiety

Much of test anxiety, similarly to anxiety and mental conditions in general, is dictated by the environment the student works and lives in, and providing a strong and comforting environment during advising appointments can help overall student emotional state. For example, increased levels of soft blue and green colors are theorized to promote calmer environments and reduce inhabitant stress⁵. Even if you’re unable to change the colors of the walls or a significant portion of the room, having more objects or pieces of cooler hues can provide a more welcoming environment for students.

Many students who have either test anxiety or general anxiety have a higher likelihood of fidgeting to find comfort⁶. Students may bounce their legs, pick or bite their nails, or bite the inside of their cheeks, but allowing them access to different fidget items can also help relieve their anxiety during appointments and non-testing scenarios. During tests, something as simple as the amount of elements (objects, wall hangings, etc.) have been shown to reduce stress in high stress environments⁷.

Conclusion

In conclusion, test anxiety and student stress are significant contributors to low academic performance and unhealthy emotional states in university student populations. Utilizing different strategies in providing comfortable environments and useful resources can greatly reduce these stressors while also improving the general campus environment. With these provisions, you can secure your student’s academic performance and make them feel supported enough to succeed in their tests and the rest of their university courses.

1. Cassady, Jerrell C., and Ronald E. Johnson. "Cognitive test anxiety and academic performance." Contemporary educational psychology 27.2 (2002): 270-295.

2. Chapell, Mark S., et al. "Test anxiety and academic performance in undergraduate and graduate students." Journal of educational Psychology 97.2 (2005): 268.

3. Steinmayr, Ricarda, et al. "Subjective well-being, test anxiety, academic achievement: Testing for reciprocal effects." Frontiers in psychology 6 (2016): 1994.

4. Cho, Hyunju, et al. "The effectiveness of daily mindful breathing practices on test anxiety of students." PloS one 11.10 (2016): e0164822.

5. Elhawary, Dalia M., et al. "The psychology of color in psychotherapy in psychiatric rehabilitation hospitals." Journal of Textiles, Coloration and Polymer Science 21.2 (2024): 443-448.

6. Reinecke, Katharina CH, et al. "Fidgeting behavior during psychotherapy: Hand movement structure contains information about depressive symptoms." Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy 50 (2020): 323-329.

7. Andrade, Cláudia Campos, and Ann Sloan Devlin. "Stress reduction in the hospital room: Applying Ulrich's theory of supportive design." Journal of environmental psychology 41 (2015): 125-134.

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• Keep Calm and Carry On: Exploring Mental Health and Wellness Options at HBCUs
• NCAN Receives Grant to Support Student Mental Wellness

Having held over 100 meetings with Congressional offices and representing 25 states, members who attended the National College Attainment Network’s (NCAN) 2024 Advocacy Training and Hill Day pounded the marble advocating for improved college access and affordability policies on Capitol Hill. Not only did participants include college access professionals and state agency leaders, but numerous high school and college students attended and shared their personal stories about the barriers they faced (and continue to face) accessing and affording college.

Students’ voices are incredibly powerful, and this is especially true when advocating for NCAN’s policy priorities like doubling the Pell Grant and meeting students' basic needs. NCAN spoke with student advocates Camryn Bailey and Meliah Bell, who represented the Carolina Youth Coalition (CYC) and are now first-year students at Howard University, to capture their thoughts, experiences, and inspirations in anticipation of Hill Day.

CYC propels high-achieving, under-resourced students to and through college by providing holistic, grade-level support in high school and fostering community among students and mentors. Camryn and Meliah attribute programs like CYC to their successful transition from high school to college. Through CYC, they found mentors and networking opportunities early on which supported them in their transition to college.

Note: quotes have been edited for clarity.

What are you advocating for today at NCAN’s Hill Day?

Camryn and Meliah hoped to advocate for greater support and representation for students who might not find themselves on a linear pathway to a postsecondary education. While some of their peers knew exactly how and where they were going to attend college, they know that’s not the case for everyone. Many students face challenges when it comes to not seeing themselves represented in their desired careers, and they lack access to resources in high school that will help them obtain higher education. Being the representation for others has motivated Camryn and Meliah to continue to advocate for college access programs and policies that will increase diversity within their careers and higher education.

Camryn: “The path to an education isn’t as easy it seems. For some, college is the natural step forward, but for many, this isn’t the case. There are factors that might challenge one’s pathway to college. We must do more to support these students.”

Meliah: “As a woman in STEM, when I was child, I didn’t see people who looked like me in the field. If you asked me a year ago if I would be coding, I would have told you no. But when I had someone guiding me, telling me I was capable, I felt like it was the right path for me.”

For Camryn and Meliah, Hill Day provided an opportunity to be the representation they’ve longed to be. It’s a moment where their passion is met at the biggest stage in the country. For Camryn, advocacy plays a big role in her desire to find solutions for the problems she sees. She stated that an opportunity like Hill Day to directly impact and solve issues at the federal is not often offered to all students.

As you engage in meetings with lawmakers today, are there stories or people in mind that you are hoping to advocate for?

For Camryn and Meliah, their family and community were at the top of their minds as they set foot on Capitol Hill. They hope to break the cycles of poverty that are present in their communities and lean on their family values to become powerful and authentic voices.

Camryn: “My why and North Star has always been my community - the people in rural South Carolina where my family is that have not received the opportunities, resources, or representation to experience economic mobility.”

Meliah: “Redemption, Relationships, Responsibility, Resilience. These values my family instilled in me as a child motivate me as I advocate for others. It is my responsibility to advocate for justice. My parents and their journey to obtain an education are on my mind.”

What is your advice to students new to advocacy?

Camryn and Meliah both mention that passion and knowing your values will make one successful in advocacy. It’s not about being perfect and knowing everything about the problem. It’s about being intentional and knowing why you are advocating for your cause. Both students expressed that they were feeling nervous as Hill Day approached, but their excitement to learn overshadowed any doubts. To make the most impact, they recommend that students new to advocacy be grounded in their story and their why.

Camryn: “Passion will bring fire into what you’re doing. It’s easier to make progress when you have passion, and you are your authentic self.”

Meliah: “Don’t be discouraged when you’re nervous, and don’t compare yourself to others. Focus on your journey - as your story will impact others in a unique way.”

What do you hope to bring back to campus?

From this experience, Camryn and Meliah are bringing back new tools, knowledge, and a spirit of curiosity to campus. Aside from the formal advocacy tools they are gaining, Hill Day motivated Camryn and Meliah to go back to their university and continue to ask about students’ campus needs and to challenge the status quo.

Camryn: “I’m hoping to advocate for policies, programs, and practices at Howard [University] that help the transition from high school to college for students of all backgrounds.”

Meliah: “This won’t be the last time I will be advocating. I will continue speaking to department chairs, administration, and students to bring awareness to what Howard [University] needs for everyone to succeed.”

Meliah and Camryn recognize that advocating for systems change is a daunting and slow process. However, that does not discourage them from continuing to serve other students and to create pathways that make access to education easier for the next generations.

Meliah recalled a story of completely changing the mindset of college for high school students simply by sharing her own story. She closed by explaining that she doesn’t need to have an immediate, world-changing impact right now, but if she can change one student’s world at a time, she’ll eventually change the world for students.

Many activities in the college access and attainment space happen for students, but political advocacy is something organizations and programs can do with students. In front of elected officials, students' views and voices operate alongside the expert practitioners who care so much about students' postsecondary futures and the policies that affect them. Students' stories and experiences operate in tandem with the policy research and data in a way that is more effective than either component alone. NCAN is grateful to these students who gave their time, energy, and enthusiasm to our collective Hill Day effort, and we will continue to seek more opportunities for these students to claim their rightful seat at the table in our nation's halls of power.

Special thanks to Alessandra Cipriani-Detres and Bill DeBaun for their contributions to this article.

Read More:

• Members and Students Convene in Washington, DC for #NCANHillDay
• Nurturing Connections: 10 Steps to Build a Relationship with an Elected Official Post-Hill Day
• Member-Served Students’ Voices Add to NCAN 2023

Reading time: Five minutes

National College Attainment Network (NCAN) members across the United States work on behalf of students every day to help them access and attain postsecondary pathways that will lead to successful and fulfilling lives. At a 2023 NCAN National Conference plenary session on Wednesday, October 18, three member-served students spoke to the value of the services they received and how their lives had been positively impacted.

The question in the session’s title: “Student Voices Responding to ‘Why College?’” was succinctly answered by the panelists “because of the opportunities I wouldn’t otherwise have had.”

Jarian Kerekes, member of the NCAN Board of Directors and Head of Social Impact at Equitable and President of the Equitable Foundation, moderated the panel comprised of:

• Cadence Banks, an alumna of the Academic Success Program-Dallas and sophomore at Texas Woman's University.
• Elexis Fisher, an alumna of Uplift Education and 2023 graduate of Emory University.
• Jordy Mendoza, an alumnus of OneGoal and 2022 graduate of the University of Houston.

Kerekes’ questions began with a familiar theme; students’ postsecondary pathways are often fraught and dependent on removing obstacles while obtaining key resources like guidance and financial aid. “When did you know that you could get there?” he asked of the panelists.

Jordy Mendoza noted that, when he started high school, he “wasn’t sure what he wanted to do…it is hard when you’re 14 or 15 to know what you want to do after high school.” He added, “When you’re first generation and don’t have that support you need to go to college, you don’t know how it works…It’s helpful to have a mentor or teacher who can help you throughout.”

By contrast, “In 9th grade, I was like, ‘Okay, I’m going to go to college,’” Fisher explained, but she was also keeping each year in front of her. During her junior year, Fisher was exploring colleges, building college lists, and exploring them. Although she mostly sent applications to Texas schools, she also applied to two out-of-state schools. As May 1 loomed, she knew she had to decide.

“I didn’t really expect to leave home,” said Elexis Fisher. “Texas students don’t really leave Texas, but I wanted to explore out of my comfort zone.” Her story is one that will be familiar to many NCAN members and the students they serve: ”My family members left, but they always came back,” said Fisher, who is now an Alumni Success Coordinator at Uplift Education’s Road to College and Career program. “Now that I’m an alumni counselor, some of our students are like, ‘Oh, I don’t want to leave Texas. Where am I going? Let’s explore.’ but I didn’t know how to explore.” Ultimately a campus visit to her eventual destination, Emory University, helped make the decision: “The feeling now of that new place is very important, and the stress and the scary can overshadow the happy and the joy…[A]t Emory I was happy. I was comfortable. I wasn’t stressed about the how’s and the what’s.”

As she was coming closer to the end of high school, Cadence Banks realized, “Oh, college is that next step.” Coming from a family with a first-generation student mother and two other children, Banks wondered how she was going to do this. Her college advisors shared their own experiences and discussed how to apply for grant aid. Through these discussions, Banks realized, “Oh, this is something everyone goes through. This is universal.” She added, “Every single person deserves access to higher education.”

Like every other student in their generation, the COVID-19 pandemic adversely impacted our panelists and required them to find ways to practice self-care and persist with their studies. Banks explained how she and her friends would host, “Zoom dance parties…yeah we’re not ‘together, together’ but we’re dancing together. Hands down that was the best experience during the pandemic.” Moments like that made her realize that, “things things seem really hard right now, but I can guarantee we’ll be together again.” For his own decompression, Mendoza would volunteer at the Houston Humane Society.

Back on-campus, Fisher found solace in her “crazy, goofy” friend group but also took advantage of activities provided on-campus, which she recommended to other students. “I encourage every student to do all these activities and events. Show up, get involved. It’s how you will feel welcomed.”

All three panelists discussed how the NCAN members they worked with helped them identify a professional direction. For example, Mendoza always liked research, and OneGoal gave him the chance to do more of it. He is currently earning his master's in business administration in project management while working as a Clinical Research Coordinator for the Department of Urology at Houston Methodist Hospital.

Prior to joining Uplift as a full-time staff member, Fisher was a Road to College & Career intern providing valuable assistance to Uplift's college counselor and career teams and able to explore different aspects of Uplift’s work. Her hope in the future is to have her own center and to eventually come back to an NCAN conference, “happy, helping students, putting a smile on their face, and I will figure it out for you guys.”

Banks described how the Academic Success Program helped her identify what her career path could look like. A false start with biology and some exploration into what made her happy pointed Banks toward researching dance programs and ways to have a career in dance. Banks hopes to use her degree to open her own dance company with a community outreach program to bring the arts into underprivileged and underrepresented communities.

Like last year’s student voice plenary, this year’s panelists were by equal measure insightful and inspiring. Their experiences represent those of millions of students served by NCAN members across the country and the many more millions who could benefit from even more college and career advising than that to which they currently have access. NCAN will continue to lift up student voices, at conference and beyond, to hear about students’ needs and vision for our field and the impact that members have on students’ lives.

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Reading time: Four minutes

More than a decade ago, the National College Attainment Network (NCAN) released our Common Measures, a set of research-backed, member-developed college access and success indicators. Members use the Common Measures, which are broken into categories like academic and financial aid indicators, to measure students’ progress and their programs’ performance. The Common Measures are, and were, a big stake in the ground for NCAN around the idea that measurement is important and can help programs both improve their outcomes and scale their capacity.

It’s easy to think of the Common Measures as leading indicators of college access and attainment. But the Common Measures themselves, and whether students accomplish them, are also the result of students’ experiences, opportunities, and contexts.

In other words: what happens before the Common Measures?

For example, it’s true that whether a student completes a FAFSA is strongly associated with whether they enroll immediately following high school graduation. It’s also true that enrolling in Advanced Placement (AP) courses and earning a three or better on an AP exam is strongly associated with enrollment. But students’ learning and life contexts before they ever considered FAFSA completion or course-taking also affects whether they will or won’t do either of these things downstream.

One of the reasons indicators like those in the Common Measures are so prevalent is that they’re easily measured, and they’re logically connected to the outcomes of interest (postsecondary enrollment, persistence, completion). Despite this, NCAN and our members know that students’ experiences, what they see, feel, and hear through their educational journey, matter. It’s just often hard to capture them.

That concept is a key focus in our current Postsecondary Pathways Project. One of the key activities of this investment is the, “development and release of a student-centered support model that influences how all students engage with college and career readiness supports.” We wrote on this blog about a year ago:

“What NCAN proposes is to create and collate a student-centric model of postsecondary advising focused on what students see, feel, and experience in terms of support rather than focusing exclusively on the available inputs (e.g., staffing) that would deliver those supports or outcome measures. The student support model we envision will describe the student’s experience in being advised, measure students’ outcomes, and then draw a correlative or causal association between the two.”

For the past year, NCAN has considered programs and organizations (both inside and outside of the NCAN membership), instruments, and approaches to connecting students’ experiences with their downstream activities and outcomes. We’ve conducted focus groups, combed through research, and had conversations internally about what supportive systems and enabling conditions look like for students that would set them up for success in college and career. We’re also workshopping our own model of what students should see, hear, and experience through the systems they’re involved with. It’s not perfect. What model is? But it’s a start, and we’re excited to share it and keep workshopping it with member feedback.

Below are five principles NCAN used to sketch out our supportive model of what states, districts, and schools should be doing:

1. Strive for equity in both experiences and student outcomes and uses multiple measures to track student progress.
2. Provide students with information and opportunities related to a wide breadth of college and career pathways, starting in middle school.
3. Believe in and support all students, not just those students historically on-track for matriculation to a college or university.
4. Deliver advising that is aligned with each student’s interests, aspirations, and aptitudes.
5. Collect, analyze, report, and share data critical to college and career pathways and use that data to drive their student services and supports.

Over the next year, we will connect the NCAN membership with organizations and experts leading this work around the country, share insights about best practices and available instruments, and examine research that supports the idea that students’ experiences and their pathways are connected as surely as the Common Measures’ indicators are associated with enrollment and completion.

Interested in this work? We’re glad to hear it, and we want to hear from you! Using the form below, leave us any questions, comments, resources, or ideas you’d like us to consider. We’ll collate these and share them back out in a future post. We’re particularly interested in how your program or organization measures or captures student experiences and feedback and uses this to improve or alter your programming or activities.

Thanks in advance for your feedback. We’re excited to continue learning alongside you!

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Reading time: Five minutes

“I feel like we’ve struggled in the past with survey results. ‘Yes or no’ questions are almost worse to ask than not in my opinion. They leave you with a lot of gaps,” says Assistant Director of Washington State GEAR UP Annie Pocklington, at the Washington Student Achievement Council (WSAC), a National College Attainment Network (NCAN) member.

The insight came during a conversation reviewing a draft of a student-centered support model NCAN is developing through the Postsecondary Pathways Project (PPP). WSAC is one of 15 state-level partners participating in the PPP.

WSAC still uses senior exit surveys to get feedback from students participating in GEAR UP, and they get a solid response rate, around 50% at last check. Despite this, what WSAC has found difficult is an obstacle inherent to lots of survey research: the selection bias inherent in who does and doesn’t respond.

To advance and expand their insight and to center students’ voices and experiences, WSAC created a student advisory group in February 2022. It is currently slated to run through the end of their grant, until at least 2024.

Building relationships between GEAR UP and the students the program serves “is just such a huge part of getting quality feedback,” says Pocklington. That relationship-building is “a long haul” but one worth pursuing.

Despite the value Pocklington has seen with her student advisory group efforts, there have been challenges as well. Notably, matching the student advisory group’s composition with the student demographics GEAR UP serves has been difficult, not just in terms of gender, race, and ethnicity, but also in terms of variety of postsecondary pathways and family structures, level of housing security, and representing learning differences. “Once we were explicit about what we were looking for we got a lot more applicants and referrals,” explains Pocklington. GEAR UP staff interviewed students by giving them three open-ended questions, which resulted in “incredible conversations” revealing “amazing critical thinkers.” At the end of their initial hiring, GEAR UP invited 11 students in to participate in the student advisory group. Since then, the student advisory group has grown by three to account for geographic regions in Washington the group had yet to represent.

One way to entice students to serve on the advisory group is compensation from the state that allows WSAC to pay students directly. Beyond the financial, though, Pocklington and her team often discuss what mutual benefits look like for this group. There are ways to compensate students without paying them, after all, like helping students to build out their resumes, providing professional development opportunities, and even creating fun camaraderie among peers. Members of the student advisory group continue to emphasize the importance of meeting in-person, which WSAC facilitates whenever feasible.

The student advisory group’s feedback helps to shape the access and attainment ecosystem in Washington. Advisory group members joined Washington’s GEAR UP staff at a professional development event last summer to help advise and build out student support-centered work plans. Students joined their own school staff in portions of the programming to provide a student lens, served on a panel to share insight to practitioners working with students similar to them, and gathered around big questions like, “what is the generational divide in communication we often times see between students and staff?” These students welcomed questions and helped staff wrestle with problems and solutions that had long been without intentional student perspective.

This relationship building has meant that GEAR UP is also able ask for help in building new program components with student voice at the center. Recently, the student advisory group helped develop a peer mentoring position posting on college campuses. WSAC developed a draft and then asked students to review it, with specific attention given to what kind of peer mentor they would personally seek out on a campus, and how they would like to see that role described.

When the advisory group isn’t working on a specific service or offering, Pocklington follows the calendar year with these students according to the college access and attainment lifecycle by providing focus group opportunities. She leads with questions like, “What does your college search process look like?” and “How are you thinking about life after high school?” The Student Advisory Committee gathers for meetings once a month, helping GEAR UP staff at the state level with more specific insight into the student experience on a consistent basis. Students have shared about their path to understanding the financial aid process, detailed their decision-making process when deciding to apply to certain schools, outlined barriers in the scholarship search process, and have been honest about their experiences with GEAR UP support in their schools – all while openly critiquing the systems they come into contact with. Advisory group members can speak to where they are in their educational journey and process, which offers valuable insight for WSAC’s communications and programming to students across the state. This helps to, “bolster the way we provide these services the next time around,” Pocklington explains.

Pocklington hopes advisory group members can be honest about their struggles, joys, and experiences and find power in their voices through this work. While people often shy away from critique, GEAR UP knows transparency and reflexivity are essential to bettering the student support they aim to provide. GEAR UP sees the voices of the students they serve not as a bonus to the work they are doing but as an essential to quality support in their programming.

For a very long time, NCAN has advocated for incorporating student voice into practice and policy and has tried to do the same with our own efforts whenever possible. WSAC’s considerable efforts convening and sustaining a statewide student advisory group is an admirable commitment to lifting up students’ voices and perspectives for the benefit of current and future students. NCAN hopes other states will pursue similar efforts; after all, students often know best what is and is not working for them and are willing to share that insight if adults and professionals are willing to listen.

For questions, comments, or support in getting your own student advisory group off the ground, Pocklington encourages you to reach out and begin dreaming. You can find more information about Washington State GEAR UP here or connect directly with Annie at anniep@wsac.wa.gov.

Read More:

• Student Panel at NCAN 2022 Confronts U.S. Affordability Crisis
• An Open Letter to the Immigrant Student Applying to College
• Congress Should Double the Pell Grant to Improve College Affordability and Students’ Lives

By: Bill DeBaun, Senior Director of Data and Strategic Initiatives

Reading time: Five minutes

“We want to get to a place where we’re helping students to thrive through college, not just survive through college,” said Zenani Johnson in Atlanta, GA this morning at the National College Attainment Network's (NCAN) 2022 National Conference.

Her remarks were part of a plenary session titled “Advancing Access to Financial Aid” that featured three college students served by NCAN members talking about the real-life implications of federal, state, and institutional aid programs. Johnson is a recent graduate from Florida State University who was served by NCAN member the Florida College Access Network.

Johnson was joined by Kaila Pouncy, a student at the University of Alabama and participant with NCAN member Alabama Possible and Morgan Forbes, an Achieve Atlanta Scholar at Spelman College. The panel was moderated by Naomi Harris, national higher education reporter for Open Campus Media.

As often as possible, NCAN lifts up student voices to share their experiences and perspectives. The plenary session panel was a valuable opportunity for attendees at NCAN 2022 to re-center those voices in their work.

All three panelists candidly discussed the support, encouragement, and prioritization on education they received from their family, even in the face of financial difficulties that made pursuing college difficult. “My parents understood how loans can really be a barrier when you’re trying to matriculate, so they wanted to make sure my sister and I were prepared,” said Forbes.

Pouncy added that for students, seeing the cost of college is a barrier unto itself. “Seeing those big numbers was very off-putting and very discouraging. A lot of students can relate; as they get closer and closer to what they want to do, their goals start to diminish because they start seeing what it takes.”

The panel’s topic, unfortunately, continues to be especially pertinent in American postsecondary life. As our data shows, postsecondary affordability continues to be on the decline. In the 2018-19 academic year, just 23% of four-year public colleges were affordable and the average affordability gap, or amount of unmet financial need, for four-year institutions was $2,524. At two-year institutions, affordability was only marginally better. Only 41% of two-year public colleges were affordable in 2018-19, and the average affordability gap was $855. 

NCAN proposes that a given two- or four-year public institution’s total price plus $300 for emergency expenses should not exceed the combined total of:

1. That institution’s average federal, state, and institutional grant award.
2. The average federal loan disbursement.
3. The expected family contribution of the average Pell Grant recipient.
4. An average Federal Work-Study award.
5. The contribution of summer wages.

To improve affordability, NCAN has long called for doubling the Pell Grant to restore its purchasing power. The Pell Grant has served as the cornerstone of financial aid for students from low-income backgrounds pursuing higher education since its creation in 1972. This need-based grant provides crucial support for around seven million students each year, or about one-third of undergraduates.

“Honestly, we need to pour more money into the Pell Grant. My EFC is $0. I am extremely, extremely grateful for the Pell Grant. I would not be in front of you today without the Pell Grant. I would not be in college without the Pell Grant. My chances at college would’ve been null and void. I need people to understand how reliant people are on that grant and federal aid to go to school,” Pouncy said during the panel.

Unfortunately, the purchasing power of the Pell Grant has continuously declined since the mid-1970s. At its peak in 1975-76, the maximum Pell award was worth more than three-fourths of the average cost of attendance – tuition, fees, and living expenses – for a four-year public university. Today, it's worth less than 30%.

President Biden called for doubling the Pell Grant by 2029, and Congress has attempted to keep the Pell Grant on pace with inflation by including increases during appropriations cycles. In 2022, the maximum Pell Grant saw its largest boost in the last decade of $400. Still, only a bolder investment in the program will curtail the rising affordability crisis. 

Although federal, state, and institutional grant aid exists for students, accessing it can be difficult for many students, including those from low-income and first-generation backgrounds. “What a lot of people don’t talk about is you don’t really get prepared for filling out those scholarships…like writing essays, accessing transcripts, and filling out financial documents. I didn’t have anyone who told me how to complete the FAFSA,” said Johnson.

Even once students navigate the myriad obstacles, they often find financial aid barriers on-campus. Forbes noted that in pleading the case for financial aid, “You can put yourself in a vulnerable situation, and then the financial aid office can still tell you we don’t have any more funds. It can make you feel really frustrated, and that’s not how someone should feel about their education.”

Beyond additional financial aid, there are other supports campuses can provide. Harris noted that distractions outside of the classroom like food and housing insecurity, having to be a caretaker, working additional jobs, are some of the other stressors many students are grappling with, and especially so in the wake of the pandemic.

Johnson noted that she has “been a strong advocate for ending food and housing insecurity on our campus, ending basic needs insecurity on our campus.” She wants to see more funding for food pantries and for emergency funding.” She asserted that, “It needs to be a collective effort from universities and our business community to support our students who will be tax-paying citizens and give them the opportunity to thrive on-campus.”

The plenary panel concluded a very successful return to in-person conferencing for NCAN. More than 1,200 attendees converged on Atlanta to reconnect and re-energize about our collective work driving postsecondary access and attainment. Over three days of plenaries and workshop sessions across 11 tracks, NCAN members and other conference attendees received the best practices and approaches that will carry their work forward.

Members will also carry the panelists’ stories with them. Johnson shared an anecdote about her time at Florida State University where she discovered that three displaced students facing housing insecurity were sleeping at night in just one car. When the car broke down, it put even more pressure on students in a precarious position. When it comes to meeting students with the supports they need, Johnson said, “I want to see more dollars behind it, not just more talking about it.” 

Watch a video of the full remarks below:

Read more:

• FSA COO Richard Corday Addresses the College Access and Success Community; NCAN 2022 Conference
• Celebrating a Career Committed to Increasing Equity in Education: Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum
• Students and Higher Education Advocates Celebrate #PellTurns50

By Nirmal Bhatt

Reading time: 2-3 min.

Dear immigrant student,

If you want to go to college in the United States, be prepared to fight. There is no way to sugarcoat it: Most colleges are not set up to understand your challenges and needs. I want to share my story and resources so that your path may be easier.

Despite living in the U..S. for nine years and graduating from high school in Tennessee, my home state considered me an out-of-state student when applying for college. This is common for immigrants.

So, why aren’t immigrant students considered in-state students?

In order to qualify for in-state tuition in most states, one must establish “permanent residence” by doing things like registering to vote. However, these prerequisites are often inaccessible to immigrants, because they are not citizens and are often stuck in a long line waiting for permanent residency, if that is even an option.

This means that no matter how long immigrants have resided in one state and no matter how much they have done for their community, they will still be forced to pay disproportionately more than their peers for the same opportunities.

At public colleges, students’ residencies are divided into three categories: in-state, out-of-state, and international. The cost of attending these schools varies drastically based on your residency. The average cost of in-state tuition is $9,580, but that number rises to $27,437 for out-of-state tuition, according to the Education Data Initiative.

In Mississippi, “All aliens are classified as nonresidents.” While there are exemptions for immigrants holding refugee status or temporary resident status, this rule precludes most immigrants from accessing in-state tuition benefits. Colleges in Mississippi offer out-of-state tuition waivers, but they depend on a student’s standardized test scores.

All hope, however, is not lost.

At least 19 states currently extend in-state rates to undocumented students, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. In New Jersey, dependent children of certain visa holders can receive in-state tuition. Similar laws require that immigrant students attend and graduate from in-state high schools and plan to apply for legal status in order to receive in-state tuition. If other states want immigrant students to also have a shot at going to college in the U.S., they should consider following suit.

Working to raise awareness of these issues is critical to solving them. I was fortunate enough to find pockets of funding through advisers and college administrators sympathetic to my situation. Finding funding is difficult, but colleges and organizations like The Hidden Dream can be great tools. The Hidden Dream is a nonprofit organization focused on helping immigrant children by providing a variety of resources (scholarship lists, job referrals, etc.) designed to help immigrants navigate their lives. I have benefited from their resources, and I hope that you too will go to thehiddendream.org and take advantage of these resources as you navigate the higher education system.

Nirmal Bhatt is a senior at Mississippi State University where he studies mechanical engineering. He is also a Student Advocacy Corps Intern at the Woodward Hines Education Foundation. In the fall, he will pursue a Master of Science in Technology and Policy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Read More:

• NCAN state policy priority: Access and Affordability for Undocumented Students
• Student view: "The Power Higher Ed Institutions Can Have in Supporting Undocumented Students"

Takeaway: Karina didn't have perfect grades, but completing her Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) with the help of school counselor made her sure she wanted to attend college.

“When we first moved to Cheyenne, we had to live in a homeless shelter. We’d been homeless before that too,” explains Karina. “My mom has had a very hard life. Sometimes she would work until 5:00 AM in the morning at the beef plant. Her last husband was abusive and would cheat on her.”

“I started to do drugs. I was around 11 years old. By the time he left, I was 13 and addicted to methamphetamine. It was really bad.” Karina remembers that, through all of it, her mom never gave up on her. “I would leave for days. My mom always looked for me. She would stay awake and see if I would come home. When I did, she helped me come down. Then, I’d leave again.”

“I even went to jail. It was horrible.” Eventually, Karina’s mom was able to persuade her to go into rehab. “I don’t even remember the first two months because I was so strung out. But I’ve been sober for three years now.”

Determined Not to Give Up

Karina’s mom never gave up on her, and she didn’t want to give up on herself either. “I don’t even know how much class I missed. I didn’t know where to put a comma in a sentence or how to study. There was one point senior year where I had three Fs. I was still missing class because I didn’t have gas money to get to school, or I was too tired after work to do my homework.”

“But I knew I was smart and I knew I had to keep trying. I asked my teachers for help and was able to turn those three Fs into two Cs and a B.” Karina’s counselor, Ms. Sackrider, hadn’t given up on her either. “She told me I had to go to college. She half-jokingly said, ‘I will hunt you down and you will go to college.’ And she did. She called me out of class to her office and told me about the FAFSA and the money I could get."

Getting Money for College

Karina remembers walking into Ms. Sackrider’s office. “I was super nervous. But she was so nice and answered all my questions. I felt like she was actually helping me.” 

“She took me step by step through the FAFSA and we filled it out together. Early on, one of the questions was whether I’d ever been homeless. I clicked ‘yes.’ Then she said I didn’t have to fill out anything about my parents because of that. There were fewer questions. It only took us a few minutes."

“I’d thought it was going to be harder. You see kids where their parents have been preparing them their whole lives for college. I freak out with stuff like this, so I probably wouldn’t have done the FAFSA if we hadn’t done it together.” Karina hadn’t been sure she wanted to go to college because of how behind she’d fallen in school. But after filling out the FAFSA, she felt differently.

“When I saw I was eligible for enough money to pay for school, I was like, this is my purpose. I want to be successful so I can help myself and my mom. I want to be successful enough to help other people.”

Karina’s Advice: You Don’t Have to be Perfect

Before she went into her counselor’s office, Karina remembers thinking: “‘Karina, you know if you walk in that office it could change your life forever. And you will never know unless you try.’ You get that gut feeling that tells you when something is wrong or something is right.” Even if someone doesn’t have supportive teachers or counselors, they shouldn’t give up, she says.

“Honestly, for kids that are having a hard time, it makes you feel like you shouldn’t even try. There are always going to be people who don’t know your situation. You aren’t going to tell everyone your life story. You have to believe in yourself. I realized that I’m not going to be perfect at everything, but neither is everyone else.”

“You should try to be greater than you think you can be. It doesn’t matter what anybody else thinks. Never let anyone tell you that you can’t do something.”

Karina will be attending Laramie County Community College and pursuing a degree in nursing. She hopes to become a motivational speaker one day, too.

Read More:

• Rashid: Escaping Civil War for a Better Future
• Katie: Deciding If College is Worth It
• Camryn: Becoming More Than a Statistic

Reading time: 2 min.

By Edgar Montoya, 2021 graduate of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, College Possible Omaha alumnus, and a former NCAN student advocacy fellow

I believe in creating greater access to higher education opportunities and fixing the current flaws within our system because I personally know the obstacles and struggles many students face in their pursuit of a degree.

As a first-generation college graduate, my parents stressed the importance of education to me and my siblings from a young age. Though my parents supported me in every way they possibly could, they could not always help with my schoolwork, college and scholarship applications, completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), and other aspects to college-going. I had much to figure out on my own. Nonetheless, my parents’ enormous sacrifices motivate me to make their hardships worthwhile.

Attending college can feel out of reach for students like me, due to underlying circumstances.

Students often need supports, such as those provided by college access and success programs and organizations — as College Possible did for me — and advising on financing postsecondary education, such as opportunities for scholarships, state/federal financial aid, and work-study. Through this support, for example, I was fortunate to receive a scholarship from the Susan T. Buffett Foundation.

Students must be well-informed about their financial aid options, such as student loans and other forms of assistance. Americans now hold over $1.5 trillion in student loan debt and millions of student borrowers have defaulted on their loans. These facts alone make clear that we must reduce barriers and burden in higher education financing.

Also, there has been more public attention on unethical practices in the student loan industry that range from issues in lending transparency to improper servicing. Predatory lending can most impact students from low-income backgrounds, students of color, those first in their families to attend college, and veterans.

Policymakers need to double the maximum Pell Grant to increase college success and mitigate (or eliminate) reliance on student loans.

Increasing funding for the Pell Grant would go a long way to addressing these issues. Doubling the maximum grant would have a substantial impact on me, my peers, and my community. As a recipient of the Pell Grant, I began my college experience at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln without financial worries, devoting my full attention to my studies.

No one should be denied a higher education based on their income or ability to afford it.

Institutions can help their students by advocating for Double Pell and providing supports.

Students also need a diverse, inclusive, and welcoming college community where they have peers from similar backgrounds and supports that reduce existing barriers to their success. Through financial aid and social/emotional supports, universities can create learning environments where students thrive and succeed in their endeavors.

Read More:

• #DoublePell FAQs
• Doubling the Pell Grant Could Lead to Higher Graduation Rates for Foster Youth
• Pell Grants and Scholarships Helped Me Pursue a Career I Love; Let's Help More Students Do the Same

Reading time: 4-5 min.

By Denye Mickens, John B. Ervin Scholar and 2021 graduate of Washington University in St. Louis; 2020-21 member of the LEDA Policy Corps and a National College Attainment Network student advocacy fellow

Today, only 5% of doctors in the United States identify as Black and 5.8% as Hispanic, despite both of these groups accounting for much larger and growing components of the American population. This is alarming because studies have shown that when patients and their providers do not share the same identities, patients are less likely to understand their risk for developing disease or to follow the recommendations of their physician.

To prepare our nation to better serve its diversifying population in a way that fosters cultural humility and equitable health outcomes, physicians are urgently calling for more diversity in the medical field. However, financial and structural barriers in higher education pose significant obstacles that can deter students from pursuing careers in medicine and healthcare.

The Sullivan Commission’s report on “Minorities in the Health Professions” estimates that “48 percent of academically qualified low-income students do not attend four-year colleges because of the financial barriers.” Many of those who do attend college accumulate considerable financial debt, with 62% of Black matriculants and 45% of Latino matriculants to U.S. medical schools reporting debt from undergraduate education expenses in comparison to only 35% of White matriculants.

Under-resourced college students are also at greater risk of having to work while enrolled in classes, limiting their ability to focus on their coursework, engage in extracurricular activities, and participate in internships and clinical shadowing opportunities, which could hinder their competitiveness for admission to medical school.

In addition to the burden of paying for college, students interested in obtaining a medical degree must navigate several steps in a long and complicated process, such as enrolling in a multitude of rigorous prerequisite lecture and laboratory courses and taking the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT). Some students, however, experience unforeseen challenges or even lack substantial academic preparation, potentially leaving them no choice but to retake these costly courses and exams to fulfill these requirements.

These additional steps add to the already existing financial burden of higher education for students who are from low socioeconomic backgrounds: an identity that disproportionately includes Black and Brown students.

I have dreamed of joining the healthcare workforce since I was a little girl. As I witnessed my loved ones succumb to devastating illnesses, I aspired to someday remove barriers to high-quality healthcare and to help patients receive the life-saving medical treatment that my family members were unable to access.

After navigating the complicated undergraduate admission and financial aid processes, I took my first steps in making this dream come true as I began college with the intention to double major in biology and sociology. I was fortunate to receive a generous merit scholarship that allowed me to attend college without accumulating debt or being forced to work, something that is uncommon for many first-generation, low-income students like me.

I was making strong progress to graduate on time with both majors until one semester when my mental health deteriorated. As a result, I struggled academically and had to withdraw from a required science course. I was devastated, but I never let this setback deter me from pursuing my dreams of becoming a doctor.

I made plans to take the course the following summer at my university. After learning that this plan would have cost me thousands of dollars in loans because financial support is extremely limited during summer semesters, I looked into taking the course at a different institution that might be more affordable. Unfortunately, my university warned that they would not accept the transfer credit. Since my scholarship only covered my tuition for eight semesters, taking another year was also not a feasible option, so I dropped my biology major.

I was ultimately able to complete the courses required for application to medical programs by paying for them out of pocket. But the difficulties I experienced in navigating the prerequisites and requirements for a STEM major and medical programs highlight that more support is needed in higher education to ultimately diversify the population of students entering and completing medical degrees.

As of now, students who lack abundant financial resources are left with little room for error in the navigation of their college journey. For this reason, I recommend that universities, federal agencies, and private stakeholders join forces and take these three steps to enhance support for students and broaden the pathway to medical school.

1. Increase financial support.

To alleviate the disparity in resources that low-income and underrepresented students currently face during the academic year and summer semester, institutions should offer more need- and merit-based scholarships. Also, federal policymakers should authorize more funding for resources such as the Pell Grant.

2. Level the MCAT prep playing field.

Additionally, students often sacrifice thousands of dollars to pay for the increasing costs of preparatory classes and administrative fees for the MCAT. If this exam must remain a pillar to medical school admission, then academic support and financial assistance should be offered by institutions to students who need them.

3. Cultivate community and support for STEM-focused undergraduates.

Lastly, to increase students’ interest in pursuing medical careers, ensure that students make sufficient progress towards completing their undergraduate degrees, and cultivate competitive applicants to medical school, every institution should develop robust, specialized STEM enrichment initiatives such as preparatory or advising programs and mentorship opportunities.

The pipeline to medical school has disproportionately leaked the students of color and under-resourced students that it desperately needs for far too long. We must act now to reinforce this pathway by increasing the resources and support available to students like me, so that we can meet the public health needs of this nation and improve the healthcare system for generations to come.

Read More:

• Pell Grants and Scholarships Helped Me Pursue a Career I Love; Let's Help More Students Do the Same
• Doubling the Pell Grant Could Lead to Higher Graduation Rates for Foster Youth
• NCAN research: "The Growing Gap: Public Higher Education's Declining Affordability for Pell Grant Recipients"

Reading time: 3 min.

By Augustine Jimenez, Boston University, Class of 2020, and Achieve Atlanta Scholar

The American dream is easy to believe in when you do not have to pay for it.

As a first-generation, Mexican-American student with a single mother who works around the clock to make ends meet, it was always clear to me that my college experience would be different from some of my peers at Boston University. When I started the long (and expensive) college application process, I knew that I wanted to attend an out-of-state school. But I also understood the difficult reality that my mother simply would not be able to help finance my education with her annual income.

Unlike students who take on the full financial burden of attending a private four-year college, I was blessed with a full-tuition scholarship to BU. As incredible and humbling as this achievement was, my family’s finances made it so there was still a great worry in paying for room, board, and the numerous other costs of attendance that my scholarship did not pay for. Just getting to Boston from Atlanta, with my necessary belongings, was a financial challenge that I had to find a solution for every year.

This is the limiting financial situation that many Pell Grant-eligible students can face. My personal experience reflects an unfortunate truth; if I had not been able to secure several other scholarships during my senior year of high school, including the Achieve Atlanta Scholarship, I could have easily graduated college with $40,000 in debt rather than the modest federal student loan debt I currently owe.

Less than 25% of four-year public colleges were affordable for a student receiving the average Pell Grant in 2018-19, according to research by the National College Attainment Network. This statistic reflects the ever-increasing cost of higher education.

My maxed-out Pell Grant was one of the programs that allowed me to escape our country’s spiraling student debt crisis by graduating nearly debt-free. But the Pell Grant’s biggest impact on my life was not just a check to my school. My relatively low debt allowed me to pursue a career in nonprofit work, instead of a higher-paying job in the private sector. The Pell Grant helped give me a greater level of financial freedom than many of my classmates at BU had.

This freedom from tremendous financial worries allowed me to pursue a truly rewarding career, despite its lower pay. During my college journey, I met many students who struggled between finding a job that they were passionate about and one that allowed them to make their debt payments.

The Pell Grant gives many first-generation, low-income students like me a greater chance to attain a degree. But the maximum grant’s purchasing power is at an all-time low. At its peak in the 1970s, the maximum Pell award covered more than three-fourths of the average cost of attendance – tuition, fees, and living expenses – for a four-year public university. Today, it covers less than 30% of that cost.

By doubling the maximum Pell Grant, Congress could offer students the chance to begin a career without crushing debt.

Despite the financial challenges that I faced in the pursuit of my degree; I’m committed to a career in public service. I can only imagine how much better off our country would be if more students had the greater financial freedom to choose a career that they love.

Read More:

• Doubling the Pell Grant Could Lead to Higher Graduation Rates for Foster Youth
• #DoublePell FAQs
• NCAN research: "The Growing Gap: Public Higher Education's Declining Affordability for Pell Grant Recipients"

Reading time: 3 min.

By Alishba Sardar, Class of 2023 UC Berkeley, NorCal Promise Fellow, and Students Rising Above Scholar

Policymakers often overlook foster youth when deciding state and federal policy. This includes policies related to financial aid and postsecondary education. For foster youth, getting a higher education provides stability and security, yet paying for college is one of the most difficult obstacles for them to overcome. Only 4% of former or current foster youth graduate from college by age 26.

Paying for college can be complicated, especially for students from the child welfare system as they may navigate it without parental support. Congress needs to double the Pell Grant for foster youth and disadvantaged students, such as those experiencing homelessness or who have a disability, in order for them to graduate from college.

For foster youth and other disadvantaged students, school is not the only priority. Many constantly worry about having a roof over their head, paying for food, supporting family members; the list goes on. How can one expect students to give academia their full attention when they have to constantly pay for their necessities?

As someone from the foster care system, I am highly dependent on the university to live, and I understand the difficulties that come with being a student. I spend my time working part-time and applying for scholarships that can help me pay for my needs, such as medical bills, buying professional clothing for job interviews, household essentials, and making my rent for the academic year, winter, and summer break. These are all costs outside of my tuition that I have to cover.

When asked how doubling the Pell Grant can support underrepresented groups, my peer Serran Lewis said:

“As a re-entry former foster youth student, I had a high interest in the outcomes of foster youth as my experiences were very challenging to get me to UC Berkeley. I did some research for an honor thesis, worked directly with foster youth before coming to Cal, and have family still receiving services. ... I graduated from UC Berkeley at age 27. I know many former foster youths who are struggling with housing during college. Extra funding would help alleviate the challenges our community faces.”

Foster youth and other historically underrepresented student populations on college campuses are frequently ignored due to the equity gap in higher education. College allows people to explore the world around them and learn to help their communities achieve opportunities. However, students cannot simply enjoy college while feeling financially insecure.

By strengthening the Pell Grant, students will have the opportunity to focus on their academics and participate in college life without constantly worrying about tuition and housing.

As the American economy recovers from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, the price of housing and tuition is increasing, yet the purchasing power of the Pell Grant has stayed the same. Today, the Pell Grant covers less than 30% of the cost of college, according to the National College Attainment Network. If Congress takes the necessary action to increase the maximum Pell Grant amount, over 80% of public colleges will become affordable for students of low-income status. With a stronger Pell Grant, more than just 4% of foster youth can graduate from college. Doubling the Pell Grant will only lead to more opportunities, as this policy would reduce equity gaps in higher education by making college more affordable for the disadvantaged community.

Everyone deserves a chance to pursue what they are passionate about without facing economic barriers. Members of Congress hold power over the joy of learning and giving opportunities that can help individuals excel and achieve their dreams. We cannot continue to ignore the equity gap in higher education and leave so many students behind.

Read More:

• NCAN policy page: #DoublePell for College Affordability
• NCAN research: "The Growing Gap: Public Higher Education's Declining Affordability for Pell Grant Recipients"
• Student view: "Why Doubling the Pell Grant is Critical Amid This Global Pandemic"
  

Reading time: 3-4 min.

By Tiffany Xie, Student at Tufts University and LEDA Policy Corps Member

With an interview around the corner and a suit that no longer fit, I applied to my university’s “Unexpected Hardship” fund. Like many other college students from a first-generation, low-income (FGLI) background, I didn't have the means to spend $100 to $200 out of nowhere.

Fortunately, Tufts University, and many other institutions, provide emergency grants for situations like these. Yet, I only discovered the existence of such grants after a chance meeting with an upperclassman. Had it not been for that fortuitous encounter, there’s no guarantee that I would’ve ever learned about them.

Many of my FGLI peers (including seniors!) had similarly never heard of such grants. Unsettled at the fact that they could all lose out on hundreds of dollars in resources, I compiled all the grants I knew of into a tightly packed email and sent it to every single FGLI person on my radar.

While this undertaking cost no more than half an hour, it revealed a structural flaw in the execution of financial support programs for FGLI students. It should not be left to us to take on the unpaid labor of supporting our entire community. Not to mention, there’s no way I could have been personally acquainted with every FGLI student on campus. There needs to be a better system in place to not only offer these grants but effectively promote them.

My experience with regular emergency grants sharply contrasted with my experience receiving COVID-19 related grants from Tufts funded by the CARES Act. In this case, FGLI students received two types of financial support. First, there was an automatic deposit of several hundred dollars for all eligible students—no applications necessary, only a history of financial need. Second, the option to apply for further emergency funds as needed. The application is terse, requiring only that students submit enough information to identify them, to specify how much they need, and what expense type they are requesting funding for. The application is quickly reviewed and approved, and funds are deposited soon after.

In regards to financial support, Tufts did a stellar job responding to the needs of FGLI students. But that begs the question—why not utilize the same procedures for non-COVID emergency grants?

One notable difference between the standard versus COVID-19 emergency grant program is that the former comes in the form of reimbursements, while the latter does not. I’m fortunate in that, while I could not afford to pull several hundred dollars out of my budget for a suit, I had enough cash on hand to spend (on the condition that I would be reimbursed).

That said, there are many students who wouldn’t have been able to front several hundred dollars. And what is an FGLI student supposed to do when they’ve been getting all A’s in their computer science classes, but their old laptop gives way a week before finals? Scraping together a few hundred bucks for a new one, even knowing that they will be reimbursed later, is no easy task when their family income is already stretched out trying to cover rent and groceries.

What makes an emergency an emergency is that it is unexpected and requires immediate attention. It’s essential that higher education institutions, with support from the federal government, improve the process for FGLI students to receive emergency funds by automatically providing aid to students in times of crisis. This would require more higher education funding from the federal government with the requirement that a proportion of funding be directed to the students.

Moreover, higher education institutions need to be more proactive in publicizing FGLI-specific financial resources. At Tufts, there are many: a professional development fund, an “unexpected hardship” fund, a health and wellness fund, and a “Swipe It Forward” program that addresses food insecurity. Yet, what use are they if the people who need them most don’t know they exist? To make sure that we do, institutions need to be better at keeping students with demonstrated financial need in the loop. Examples of ways to do this are regular and targeted outreach to FGLI students and a webpage that features all FGLI-related resources in one easily shared and accessed location.

These are all simple but powerful next steps in uplifting the FGLI community.

Read More:

• A Recent Graduate’s Perspective: How Higher Ed Institutions Can Better Support First-Gen Students
• ED: Students Are Eligible for Emergency Aid Regardless of FAFSA Completion, Title IV Status

Reading time: 4-5 min.

By Stephanie Tavares, LEDA Policy Corps member and student at Boston University

We all watched the world erupt into Black Lives Matter protests last May and as a result, promises were made, committees were formed, and discussions were held on college campuses worldwide on how to address racism in and out of the classroom.

As a Black first-generation student and president of my campus Black Student Union, I quickly became involved and led conversations about Minneapolis and George Floyd. By the Monday night after the protests began, I organized a call with 500+ members of the Boston University community during which we identified problems and ways to improve our university. The student population mobilized to raise $150k to donate to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the Black Vision Collective.

Meanwhile, the university remained silent until a week later. In this initial statement, my university president glazed over the protests and denounced systemic racism without any real reflections regarding the conversations his own university community was having about instances of racism. It took another week to release a statement that addressed the pervasive issues on our own campus, but this statement still overlooked the concerns of the Black student population.

After some effort from the university and conversations with professors and administrators, I thought we would see tangible immediate action and support for Black students and other students of color. Instead, I was pulled into multiple directions by administrators, professors, and students to lead in anti-racism efforts for Black students and quickly became burnt out.

This is the story of the Black campus student leader. Instead of fighting for change in the real world, we are struggling to support each other. We are leading diversity conferences, organizing opportunities for students and faculty of color to meet. We are expected to answer positively when asked questions about diversity and inclusion on campus tours, but we know the reality of the harm that eager prospective students of color may face. We are expected to mentor other students of color with the little knowledge we have about navigating the university space.

Quite frankly, I am exhausted of being a Black woman student leader on campus. I was told by a Black administrator that it’s best I come to terms with this invisible labor now because it is going to follow me wherever I go, in any industry and at any workplace. These are the words of a woman jaded by experience. Her advice has stuck with me simply because it is unacceptable. I refuse to accept that that is a forever reality for Black women.

Colleges and universities need to combat systemic racism in higher education while not relying on oppressed communities to solely do this work. They need to consider the students who are working with them on diversity, equity, and inclusion issues and ask them about the invisible labor that they are expected to do and the mental toll it takes on them. My recommendations for how colleges, especially predominately white institutions, can do this include:

• Create a Campus Climate Index that identifies when students report acts of discrimination and sexual assault. BIPOC students and women are unknowingly entering into unsafe environments hidden by these universities.
  
  
• Develop quality anti-racism training and diversify course syllabi. Institutions value diversity because it exposes people to other cultures, but imagine the experience of the one Black student in a sea of white people having to explain a microaggression or an instance of racism. If we truly value diversity it is essential to understand the ways we all perpetuate harm within our communities. As Dr. Eric Grollment put it:

“Allowing students of color into otherwise white campuses does nothing to change the racial climate; you can have racial diversity without true racial inclusion and racial equality. (Just look at how racially segregated your campus’s dining hall is.) Diversity in terms of the number of students of color doesn’t change the lack of diversity among the faculty and administration, the lack of coverage of race in appropriate courses, the absence of authors of color from syllabi, the absence and/or underfunding of Black/African/Latina/Asian/Native American studies departments, and so forth.”

• Establish a physical space on campus for BIPOC students to receive sufficient support to deal with bias and discrimination and just to enjoy each other. This safe space is important because many BIPOC students are required to cloak themselves and conform to make others comfortable. It shouldn’t be the additional task of Black faculty to do the extra work to create this space either. This space needs to be intentional and crafted with staff and students to provide mentorship and cultivate community.

Almost every student of color, regardless of their racial or ethnic background, I know has served in leadership positions on their campuses and has tried to make them better. All students deserve to feel welcomed on their campuses and know that their efforts matter. I encourage all universities to look toward their students of color and think about the weight they may be carrying during these times.

Read More:

• LEDA Policy Project Overview
• A Recent Graduate’s Perspective: How Higher Ed Institutions Can Better Support First-Gen Students
• 3 Lightning Talks: Achieving Equity in College Access and Success – What Will It Really Take?

Takeaway: A College Now advisor got Camryn thinking about funding options beyond an athletic scholarship for college. Completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) gave him more options to consider.

“Where I come from, a lot of kids don’t go to college. It is rare that they graduate high school,” Camryn explains. “I thought I’d join the Marines or the Army.” College wasn’t on Camryn’s mind, until his track coach sophomore year got him thinking. “He asked me, ‘Are you going to run in college?’ He put that idea in my head. I started thinking more and more that maybe I could go to college.”

“By junior year, I was like, I’m going to college. I don’t want to do anything else. I want to be the first of my mom’s kids to graduate college.” Camryn knew college wasn’t going to be easy. “My older sister went to college, but she dropped out after the first semester,” Camryn says.

“I think it was too hard. But she ran away when things got tough. That’s not going to be me. For me, when things get tough, I use that as motivation. God put me here for a reason. Just because something bad happens doesn’t mean that something good isn’t coming my way.”

“I don’t want to end up being a statistic,” he adds.

Thinking Beyond Athletic Scholarships

Camryn knew he’d need help paying for college. He ran track and played football, so he thought maybe he could get an athletic scholarship. “Then, somebody from College Now came to my class to talk about FAFSA. I was thinking, do I really need to fill this out? I remember they said, ‘What if you don’t get a full scholarship? Where will you be then?’”

“They had a good point,” Camryn says. “I only have one parent, so I thought my odds of getting some money from the government are good. Why not fill it out to see what I can get?” Camryn decided to talk to his mom about it first. “I told her I needed her income information to fill out the FAFSA.”

“I said to her, ‘What if I don’t get an athletic scholarship? I don’t want you to take out thousands of dollars of loans to help me go to school when we can get free money from the government.’”

“She told me she’d get me the information I needed. She even said, ‘Fill it out ASAP so we can be ahead of the game.’ The FAFSA came out October 1 and we were ready by October 2.”

More Support Than He’d Imagined

“I went into my College Now advisor’s office at my school and we filled out the FAFSA together. She explained where all the information went in the form.”

“Once we sat down, we didn’t stop except for a couple times. There was some more stuff we needed and we called my mom. She was at work, so we had to wait five or 10 minutes for her to call us back. In all, it took us maybe an hour and a half.”

Camryn found out later that he’d received a Pell Grant. “I got about $3,500. Then, my college looked at my FAFSA and said my tuition would only be $4,000 a year. Normally tuition there is $50,000, so to only have to pay four is big.” College Now helped Camryn figure out how to close the gap. “They helped me fill out applications for outside scholarships, and I got them. Now I don’t have to pay anything throughout college.”

“I feel like College Now really cares about kids. They didn’t have to help me apply for scholarships. They did not have to help me fill out my FAFSA as fast as we did, but they were true to their word."

“They were there for me whenever I needed someone,” he adds. “They looked over my application essays, correcting things that needed to be corrected. When my grandma passed and I wasn’t myself, they noticed and helped me cope. It was a blessing, honestly.”

Camryn’s Advice: See What You Can Get

“I know some kids who have two parents in the household and make a lot of money, but they still filled out the FAFSA to see what they can get. Sometimes it’s just a test to see if they can get some money.” Camryn adds, “I believe kids should do it just to see. You’ll never know if you don’t apply for it. It’s free money. Everybody loves free money.”

“I also learned that it is okay to ask for help. You don’t have to do everything on your own. Turn to somebody for help. That’s what they’re there for.”

Camryn will be attending the College of Wooster and studying psychology. He has a spot on the football team and hopes to walk onto the track team. He plans to one day be an investigator for the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Read More:

• Rashid: Escaping Civil War for a Better Future
• Karina: From Rehab to College
• Katie: Deciding If College is Worth It

Takeaway: Encouragement from her college advisor made all the difference for Tyshae when it came time to complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).

“I like school. The only thing I hate is having to get up so early,” Tyshae says with a laugh. “I’m the salutatorian, which is the person after the valedictorian. I have to give a speech at graduation,” explains Tyshae. “I’m a little nervous, but I just have to stay calm. It’s just my friends and family. I was always a shy kid, so my confidence had to build up.”

Even though Tyshae was shy growing up, she always believed in herself. “I never doubted that I’d go to college. I just always believed I could do it. Lots of people in my family didn’t go to college, but they really want me to have a good life and make good money.”

She has been preparing for college by taking college-level classes, too. “My counselor told me about the program and at first I thought it would be too much. But I’m glad I did it. Even though it can be pretty hectic, I’ve built up 34 credit hours. I’m pretty happy about that.”

Getting Help From Her College Advisor

“My college advisor introduced the FAFSA to us, maybe at the end of 11th grade or the beginning of 12th,” Tyshae recalls. “I didn’t really know what it was — whether it would be on paper or on the computer,” she says. But her college advisor was able to answer her questions. “My advisor was very encouraging, and he was looking out for me. He was always willing to help because he really wanted us to do the FAFSA.”

Filling out the FAFSA was easy, Tyshae says. “Some parts I did myself. One part I asked my mom for help. I have a free period at school, so I was able to go to my college advisor for help, too.” But there were a few things that were hard: getting her mom’s FSA ID and getting selected for verification.

Figuring out the FSA ID and Verification

“My older sister filled out the FAFSA when she graduated in 2013, so my mom already had an FSA ID. But she couldn’t remember it,” Tyshae explains. “She couldn’t remember the answers to the secret questions or anything. It was like, we can’t break into this, so what are we going to do?”

“We got something either in the mail or by email that we could fill out to verify her identity. Then we were able to go ahead and finish the FAFSA.” Then, Tyshae found out she was selected for verification. That means she had to provide additional proof of her mom’s income.

“It was pretty tough. There was a lot of waiting for things to get sent to us and then send to my school, stuff like that,” she says. She had to wait for documents from the IRS so she could send them to her college’s financial aid office. But her determination paid off. “I got a Pell Grant, grants from the state of Ohio, loans, and a scholarship. I’m getting around $30,000 in financial aid.”

“I was like, ‘Wow, that’s great!’ I just really hoped I would get it. I am very thankful for my college advisor. I don’t know what I would have done without him.”

Tyshae’s Advice: You Never Know What Can Happen

“Go to your college advisor or whoever can help you with filling out your FAFSA. Make an appointment and ask questions about the FAFSA so you will already be prepared,” says Tyshae. She thinks every student should fill out the FAFSA. “Go for it. You never know what could happen,” she adds. “And apply to as many scholarships as you can. You never know if you are going to get that money or not. At least you’ll have tried and then you might not have to take out any loans at all.”

Tyshae will be attending Youngstown State University and plans to major in business administration. She hopes to own a business one day.

Read More:

• Karina: From Rehab to College
• Camryn: Becoming More Than a Statistic
• Katie: Deciding If College is Worth It

By Alishba Sardar, UC Berkeley Class of 2023 and student member of Students Rising Above

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) holds tremendous power in the lives of college-bound scholars – it can either open doors for many students or block their dreams of attaining a higher education. NCAN, Students Rising Above, and I agree that the FAFSA and the audit-like verification process need to be simplified.

I am an immigrant from Pakistan and a former foster youth. I am one of the many scholars that has to fill out the FAFSA, afraid of not knowing the right information and going through the stress of verification. The NCAN policy team recommends simplifying the FAFSA process by removing unnecessary questions from the form and streamlining verification.

These policy recommendations resonate with me, as I had to fill out duplicative unnecessary questions and go through the verification process multiple times. These policy changes can be beneficial to open a gateway to higher education for students, especially those who are first-generation and low-income.

My first time filling out the FAFSA was very difficult. I felt lost and wondered how I was going to access higher education. How could I pay for college? Was I even qualified for any scholarships? I knew college was the only way for me to gain a stable life, and I was in desperate need of answers.

I can still recall filling out the Financial Aid Application in my senior year of high school. My sweaty palms competed with the pounding of my heart as I answered a hundred questions not knowing if I was answering them right. The stakes felt very high; I had to get them all right because I knew that aid accessed by completing the FAFSA was the only way for me to pay for college.

Thankfully, I had the support and help of my school counselor and Students Rising Above advisor; otherwise, I would have completely lost my way and given up.

Now that I’m a college student at UC Berkeley, I look back and recognize changes are needed and simple shifts in FAFSA can make a huge difference for students like me.

FAFSA needs to be streamlined for low-income students so they don’t have to keep proving their income.

The number of questions and the wording of the FAFSA stressed me out and confused me a lot. I felt that there were unnecessary questions that could have been simplified so that they would not cause so much stress to me and other low-income students in my situation.

For example, when I was filling out the FAFSA, I verified that I was a former foster youth but still had to answer multiple questions about income. This led me to worry and wonder if I was answering questions correctly even though I had already indicated my low-income status.

I support the NASFAA work group’s recommendation to “institute a three-level application process where, after answering demographic and dependency status questions, applicants [are] steered down one of the three paths based on their responses to screening questions.” This recommendation can be life-changing because it can significantly help alleviate the barriers to completing the FAFSA for those who have already experienced significant disruptions in their lives.

Verification needs to be simplified.

Filling out the FAFSA form is not the only stressful part. Once you click submit, you may go through several verification processes that are just as draining and stressful.

Unfortunately, I was selected for verification after I successfully submitted my FAFSA application. I was so anxious and afraid that my verification would not be accepted and then my FAFSA would not be processed. Additionally, several colleges requested proof of non-filing of taxes, which took me three months to obtain. As a result, I missed due dates and my financial packages were also delayed.

I remember feeling very emotional not knowing which college I could attend because of the verification process. I had worked so hard on my grades, test scores, extracurricular activities, but now this one missing document was going to prevent me from achieving my dream of getting a higher education. Two of the colleges that I had applied to were not able to give me my full financial aid package before college decision day. This led to more stress because it limited my choices of colleges to attend.

I then went through the verification process yet again in my second year of college when I was asked to verify my citizenship. The stress of finishing my first year of college during a pandemic while collecting documents to allow me to continue my education was a huge emotional burden. This ongoing verification process needs to stop, as it throws an undue burden onto first-generation, low-income students who are already at risk and struggling to learn how to navigate college.

There is a great need to simplify the FAFSA application and related verification processes for many reasons. First, to ease the burden on students who are already under excruciating stress during the application process; to avoid delay in the student’s financial aid packages so they are able to freely make informed decisions and choose which schools to attend; and ultimately, for many other low-income, first-generation students to have greater access to higher education like me.

Given the current statistics available on low-income students' access to college, it is essential that the NCAN recommendations be followed, so that higher education will truly be accessible.

Read More:

• NCAN policy proposals: Fix FAFSA
• NCAN Executive Director Testifies About Fixing the FAFSA to the Senate Education Committee
  
• How the FUTURE Act Improves the Federal Financial Aid System
• NCAN Conducts First Comprehensive Review of Impact of Verification on Pell Grant Awards

By Panhaneath Seng, Alumna of Northwestern University and Operation Jump Start, Long Beach, California

I was beyond grateful to receive the POSSE full-tuition scholarship for four years of college and attend a university that was able to offer me scholarships and grants to cover other expenses. As a first-generation, low-income student, I cannot rely on my family financially, and the amount of aid I received was crucial in determining my ability to continue my education beyond high school.

Even with a significant amount of financial aid from the university, there were various personal expenses, such as airfare, dorm supplies, and other essentials, that I had to cover. Between my savings and outside scholarships, a majority of which came from the youth mentoring organization Operation Jump Start, I was able to manage without putting my family in financial hardship.

But not all students can access the scholarships and other supports I did. Doubling the maximum Pell Grant – a form of federal financial aid targeted to students with the least financial resources – is one way for all students with financial needs to receive additional support without having to work so many hours that they sacrifice their academic performance and opportunities to explore their career.

For additional financial support and the ability to occasionally assist my family with expenses, I applied for an on-campus job before I even arrived at school.

My first day of work was during Northwestern University Wildcat Welcome student orientation. I started on the pre-medicine path as a neuroscience major, with multiple science courses already planned for me to be on track. The peer advisers and seminar professors in my orientation group strongly advised against working during the first quarter or even the first year of college to make sure my peers and I could handle the rigorous academic program. However, not working was not an easy choice for many first-generation students who were not able to receive financial support from their family.

Having to work while going to school full time was challenging, and I often had to sacrifice sleep and free time. I had two to three part-time jobs at one point, averaging 30 hours per week.

In addition to these jobs, I was able to manage by utilizing available resources on campus. I reached out to the Student Enrichment Services at Northwestern to acquire essential items for my well-being and academics, including winter clothing and a reliable laptop. Besides resources, I had access to many opportunities and a support system, consisting of a team of advisers who guided me in applying for scholarships to finance my study abroad trips. For two quarters, I was able to participate in a public health program in Beijing and London, which was invaluable to my growth and career development.

These resources are not available across all colleges and universities, and even at elite institutions, they are not well advertised to students. A stronger Pell Grant would go a long way in meeting the financial needs of students who cannot access supports like this from their college or university. And now more than ever, doubling the Pell Grant is integral to ensuring that students are able to continue and successfully complete their education.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated existing barriers to education for many, especially marginalized student groups. When COVID began to spread in the U.S. earlier this year, I could no longer work because my jobs were considered non-essential. So I had to figure out how to pay rent and bills while finishing my last quarter of college.

Other first-generation students from low-income households are in similar, if not worse, situations. Some are at risk of dropping out to support their family or simply cannot focus on their academics when they are faced with a financial crisis. Increasing the Pell Grant would offset some of these negative effects.

College was unaffordable for many students from low-income backgrounds before the pandemic hit. As of the 2017-18 academic year, less than 50% of two-year public colleges and only 25% of four-year public universities were affordable for a student receiving the average-sized Pell Grant, according to research from the National College Attainment Network. And the trend of disparity in access to higher education is only going upward.

I am advocating for doubling the maximum Pell Grant. This would restore the purchasing power of the grant to cover roughly 50% of the cost of attendance for a four-year public university. A stronger Pell Grant would significantly alleviate the financial burdens that many students are currently facing. It would also promote education and racial equity.

Supporting students now will ensure more diverse representation in many professional fields in the long term, including healthcare and politics. In short, paving the way for students from low-income backgrounds to continue their education during this crucial time is an investment in our nation’s future workforce and leaders.

Read More:

• Doubling the Pell Grant Could Lead to Higher Graduation Rates for Foster Youth
• #DoublePell FAQs
• NCAN research: "The Growing Gap: Public Higher Education's Declining Affordability for Pell Grant Recipients"

Takeaway: Rashid's family moved to the US to escape the civil war in Kenya. Learning about the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) from an I Know I Can counselor gave him options on how pay for college.

“On my first day of school in the United States, the teacher gave us all an assignment,” Rashid recalls. “In Kenya, you don’t call teachers by their last name — you call them ‘teacher.’ So when I needed help I raised my hand and said, ‘Teacher, teacher.’”

“People started laughing at me,” he says.

School was a difficult adjustment for Rashid, who came to the U.S. halfway through high school. “My accent was different. It was hard for me to adapt. But six months later, I joined the school’s soccer team. I’ve been playing soccer since I was eight years old. I started adapting to the culture and making friends.”

It was tragedy that spurred his family to migrate. “My father died in the civil war in Kenya. My mom, three younger brothers and sisters and I came to the United States so we could get a better education.”

“I’m facing a lot of challenges,” explains Rashid. It’s a struggle for his mom, who works at a local warehouse, to work while taking care of him and his siblings. “I need to try my best to make money to help my family and pay my bills.”

Figuring Out How College and Financial Aid Works in the US

It was difficult to figure out how college works, especially in a new country. “I will be the first in my family to attend college,” says Rashid.

“In my senior year, I hadn’t filled out any college applications. I didn’t do my FAFSA. All the students were talking about that stuff, but I didn’t know about it.”

“One day, all the seniors were called into the auditorium and I met a lady named Ms. Clemens from I Know I Can. I said, ‘Hey, Ms. Clemens, what is FAFSA?’ She told me to come to her office at the school, so I did.”

“I asked, ‘How does FAFSA help? What does it do?’ Another question I had was if the money from it was free or if I had to pay it back. She told me that some of the money was free, so I was a little bit excited. Because I come from a low-income family, I can’t pay for college by myself.”

Ms. Clemens gave Rashid a list of things he needed to gather to fill out the FAFSA, which included his mom’s income.

Getting the Information He Needed From His Mom

When Rashid asked his mom for her income information, she had questions of her own.

“She asked me, ‘Why do you need it? What is it for?’ I started explaining that the FAFSA will help me pay for college since we can’t pay the college money. Then, she told me it was okay.”

But it wasn’t that simple. “I also had to include her former income, but that was when she worked at a salon in Kenya. Ms. Clemens helped me convert it to US dollars so I could put the number in the FAFSA.”

Rashid started filling out the FAFSA himself, but found he needed help. “It was confusing. I asked Ms. Clemens to help me. We finished everything together. Other people were finishing the FAFSA in one day, but it took me two days to finish.”

Looking back, Rashid says it was worth it. “In the middle of the form, I was thinking, this is taking too long. But then I was thinking, who is going to pay for college? That got me to keep going.”

Rashid’s Advice: Stay Positive

“I just want to say one thing: have a positive mind. Fill out the FAFSA. There is nothing to be afraid of. It is free money you are getting.”

“Even if it doesn’t cover everything, it might cover some of the cost. It depends on your income and your parent’s income, too,” adds Rashid.

“This is for the students who don’t have money to pay for college. It helps them get a chance to go to college and succeed in life. I think everyone can achieve their goals and dreams if you stick to it and do what is right.”

Rashid will be attending Columbus State University and plans to study medical engineering or another medical field. “I’m good at science and math,” he says. He hopes to play soccer in college, too.

Read More:

• Karina: From Rehab to College
• Camryn: Becoming More Than a Statistic
• Tyshae: Not Shy About Asking for Help