001right here oh there she go okay we're gonna jump right into it we're live and thank you all for tuning in tonight good evening and Welcome to our College and Career Readiness Expo Town Hall my name is Yolanda Hamilton and I am the districts at diversity equity and inclusion consultant and this evening I have the pleasure of being your moderator here at the Garfield Heights City School District we Center our programming and efforts around our students and we keep our model in mind which is every child every day together our program this evening is aimed at providing you with valuable information and resources to prepare students for Life After High School whether you are pursuing your dream of going away to college taking up a trade starting a business finding the right job or even
002enlisting in the military we want to make sure that you have all the information to explore all the options that are out there for you so for that reason we have the level up collagen career Readiness Expo that will take place next week at the high school starting Monday November 14th through Saturday November 19th tonight we have a packed agenda to provide you with information about college trades career options and also scholarships available to support your educational Pursuits our College our level of college and Readiness week will start off on Monday November 14th we're asking all of our Garfield Heights staff to rep their college by wearing their gear and we're also asking students to wear gear in the colors of a school that they might aspire to go to or a color that represents
003their special field of Interest as it pertains to a career on Tuesday November 15th our partners from college now will be on site at the high school to provide workshops on valuable tips and strategies of how to better prepare for college Wednesday November 16th will be focused on building knowledge and we will host various colleges universities and Vocational School representatives in our Performing Arts Center students will have a chance to engage with those representatives and learn about the the various options um that are available to them and this will take place from 8 AM to 2 p.m Thursday the 17th is our scholarship there and so students will have the unique opportunity to interact with various organizations that will provide information on scholarship opportunities and how to fund your education and this will take place
004in the Little Theater at the high school the end of the week will culminate with a field trip to the annual HBCU college fair sponsored by the Cleveland Council of black colleges slash HBCU alumni Cleveland this opportunity is solely for juniors and seniors students will have the opportunity to attend college readiness workshops and visit the college fair that will feature hbcus also known as historically black colleges and universities from all over the country all seniors will have the opportunity to complete the common black college application for free which is an application in which one can apply and it goes to over 20 schools to their admission offices and so that's such a great privilege and for any students that are interested in applying to hbcus at the fair some of the schools represented will be
005providing on-site admission and acceptance as well as scholarships isn't that great and a unique opportunity but you need to make sure that your student has the proper documentation which includes photo IDs copy of transcripts their current class schedule College interest essay a letter of recommendation act and SAT scores and as well as a resume so that's a lot right well at this time I would like to introduce Miss Gina Wilson our district Civic and family engagement coordinator and Mr Tim hurt our diversity equity and inclusion learning specialist hello everyone um my name is Gina Wilson and I am your proud family and Community engagement coordinator for Barker Heights City Schools um family and Community engagement it is the center of everything we do I pride myself on working with students families communities and making sure
006that we are working together to bridge the gap between home and school that is very important and I look at it as an opportunity to build relationships so we can work together to provide the best opportunities for our Scholars um there are many ways that we can engage and we have the opportunities to provide our um engagement efforts in all of the buildings in district-wide some of the things that we have done so far this year it's our back to school event which I thought was an amazing turnout with our families and communities and Scholars that came out we had great representation and it was just an event that really set the tone for our school year and that is the idea that we want to bring upon Garfield Heights for our Scholars for our
007families and our communities to keep that same energy we also just recently had the Harvest Fest where we had a truck or tree opportunity and some indoor activities for our Scholars and families um so parts of the paid in and I'm always looking for opportunity to engage with rpmes and Community um you will see my face around asking for volunteers ways that you want to engage in your child's school please let me know we are always looking for volunteers to step foot in the building to volunteer their time and really to create that school culture we really want to create an atmosphere where parents feel welcome for Community agencies and organizations can come to us and we can work together and partner that is our goal that is our mission we want to see our
008families in our building we want to create opportunities and we are all here for it I'm saying that to say I want families Community to reach out to me to see how we can come together and partner for our Scholars we want to create all opportunity best opportunity for our Scholars for so they can succeed maximize their learning education and really set them up for future success that is our goal to create wonderful Scholars and Community City is future citizens of our Garfield Heights and I have to say I am a proud graduate of Garfield Heights City Schools and I want to do is I want to give back and I want to create these opportunities for families and students to engage with one another we will be having a winter fest opportunity come up
009um in December um and I'm calling out families to come come up we want we want to create opportunities where you can engage volunteer and we want to maximize every opportunity that we can if you are interested in volunteering or engaging any which way we understand we value your time we understand the importance of your time but any way that we can um have you in our buildings we want to see you there um and I'm going to share my contact information at the end um and I'm going to pass it on to Mr hurt thank you Jana good evening families and Community my name is Tim Hart I'm the diversity equity and inclusion learning coordinator and my role in the district is to take a look at and monitor existing structures and systems for
010equity for our students to make sure that when our students leave us post-secondary that they can compete and thrive in this growing diverse world we look to bring exposure and experiential opportunities to the kids we look to ensure that their lessons and their instruction is high level and rigorous so that we can get them many opportunities to pursue whatever career paths or college paths or educational paths that they that they desire so we are definitely looking to build Partnerships with the community Garfield have the wealth of alumni and families that we want to reach out to and bring into the fold because we would like you to share your information and share your businesses share your opportunities with our Scholars to give them a well-rounded education to sure that when they step out these doors
011at the end of their senior year they step into their Destiny a great um future for them that's provided by Garfield City school districts and um provide I want to we do partner with college now and Miss Hamilton mentioned that they are going to be present on site next week but they have provided us with the opportunity and a video for us to share tonight with some valuable information for our Scholars and our families watching hi everyone my name is Helen rusinski and I work as a college access advisor at Garfield Heights High School through a non-profit organization called college now Greater Cleveland and I'm here to talk with you about college now and some of the services it offers to Garfield Heights students as well as the college entrance exams the act and sat
012and the importance of those and finally about financial aid and pain for college now is a national leader in college access organizations it was the first organization of its kind in this country and it serves as a model for other organizations that do similar work its mission is to increase after school educational attainment and we do that through a number of ways through personal College and Career access advising within the schools we also do financial aid counseling with families helping them submit their applications and also interpret their financial aid award letters from each College we help students apply for scholarships we offer our own scholarships to students and we also provide retention services to help support students while they are in college we provide our services predominantly to school age students and in Garfield Heights
013were at the high school but we also provide services to adult Learners at our downtown office as well first I wanted to talk a little bit about college entrance exams and their importance so there are two college entrance exams the Act and the SAT you may have heard recently that colleges are no longer requiring these tests and this was primarily due to covid-19 and the difficulty of taking the test beginning in 2020. although many schools are continuing to waive scores and we at college now still believe that it is important for students to take these tests and that's for a number of reasons the main reason is that college entrance exams are used often for scholarship purposes so even if a college does not require the score for admission it may be helpful for students
014for obtaining additional money for school in addition the act and sat are often used as placement exams so if a student has an ACT score on file with their college they may test out of some of their earlier college coursework and that can help them reduce their tuition costs because they don't have to take those beginning level courses in regards to which tests you should take either test will be accepted at any college the ACT is more popular in Garfield Heights because that is the test that is offered at the school for students for free during their junior year in the spring there's always one offered in March for free for juniors um they are designed to be similar tests but some students do find that they like the format of one test over the
015other so college now does recommend that students take at least one of each test and see which one they prefer more and then go from there regarding the timing of these exams most students will take the ACT for the first time during that in-school exam which is again offered during March of their junior year so that would be spring of 11th grade at that time we would encourage them also to take the SAT just to see if that's the format that they like better and would like to pursue and possibly try to increase their score um and then students do have the opportunity to take the test again independently and so then we would recommend that they take another one in the fall of their 12th grade and to try to increase their score and
016just maximize both their admissions chances and also their scholarship possibilities [Applause] outside of the one that is offered in the school you can register for it independently to register for the ACT you can do so on act.org and to register for the SAT you can do that at collegeboard.org if you are registering to take these tests on your own there are fees associated with the test typically between 60 and 80 dollars per test but there are fee waivers available to eligible students in the Garfield Heights High School guidance department and also through college now as well if you are interested in taking the test independently this is the list of the ACT test dates for this year the next test coming up is on December 10th and the late registration deadline for that is November
01711th so that's this Friday um if you're a senior and you are interested in taking the ACT again to try to boost your score feel free to come to the high school guidance Department either I could help you register or your guidance counselor could help you register to retake that test the one after that would be February 11th either the December or February test for a high school senior should be fine for them in terms of sending to their college for admissions options so certainly consider taking those if you'd like I do also offer a free ACT test prep course at Garfield Heights High School after school for students it focuses on math reading English and science all four sections of the test as well as College and Career lessons the next session will start
018in Winter January 10th through March 3rd the program runs for eight weeks after school Monday through Thursday for three hours from 2 30 to 5 30. it is required for students to complete the program that they attend and participate for at least 30 days um so if they miss a day they can come on Fridays to do the makeup day if they complete all requirements for the program they take their diagnostic pre and post-tests complete all the lessons completed College and Career project they are then eligible for internship opportunities through college now which are paid they're eligible for free College and Career trips and they also earn a 200 stipend that they can use for whatever they like at the end of the program so I posted the QR code to this slide and so
019you could use your phone to sign up and register right now and I will also be posting Flyers around the school as well as in the different grades Google classrooms that your students should have access to so there will be plenty of opportunities to sign up before January the final topic I'm going to talk about is financial aid and particularly the FAFSA application FAFSA stands for free application for federal student aid it is overseen by the Department of Education and it gives the doe state governments and colleges a reference to measure student need and how much Aid a student could qualify for based on their financial circumstances it needs to be completed for every year that a student is enrolled in school so we will not only need to complete it when your student is
020a high school senior and planning to start college but you'll also need to complete it every year that they're in school whether that's for two or four years so that the government and schools can re-award your students Aid every year and you can access the application on studentaid.gov what are some of the items that would be helpful to have handy when you're completing the FAFSA form with your student if you did file a tax return in 2021 I would recommend using something called the IRS data retrieval tool which is within the FAFSA application essentially what that does is it will electronically pull your tax return from last year directly into the application so you don't have to worry about locating the paper copy and entering it in by hand you can just do it electronically
021so that often saves families some time and effort by using that tool I would recommend doing that a couple of quick notes about the FAFSA again the FAFSA needs to be completed every year this year is opened on October 1st and the deadlines vary by school typically the FAFSA deadline corresponds with the college application deadline so just double check on your College's website and make sure that you're keeping track of that information why complete the FAFSA in the first place the FAFSA generates every type of financial aid so even though it's a Federal Form it also generates the state grants and the colleges use it to award their need-based aid as well most scholarship money for students will come directly from the college itself um so it's definitely important for the student to have a
022FAFSA on file so that they can qualify for the most money possible the FAFSA uses last year's tax return so try to fill it out as soon as you can we recommend aiming to fill it out by the end of this month the reason being that some schools do have a priority deadline for FAFSA filing so just double check on your College's website and see if they have a priority or early FAFSA kind of financial aid application deadline and try to fill it out by then there is one other type of financial aid application called the CSS profile that is generally required by more selective institutions so typically private institutions and some more selective Public Schools as well it is more intensive than the FAFSA but it is designed to provide a complete picture of
023your family's Financial circumstances and again provides an estimate of what schools can award your student on a need basis it also opens on October 1st and you can find the list of schools that require the CSS profile on collegeboard.org so be sure to check to see if your student School especially if it's a private school if it's listed on as requiring the CSS profile so after you've completed your FAFSA and CSS profile if it's required there are three main types of financial aid that you may receive from your school the first is Grants and scholarships that's called gift money and that's the best type of money you can be awarded because that's money that you don't have to pay back grants typically come from the government and they're need based and then scholarships will generally
024come from the colleges um one important thing to note is that some scholarships you will be able to qualify for through the FAFSA so just by submitting the FAFSA that college will consider you for the scholarship other scholarships you will have to look around for a little bit more you'll have to go to your College's website look on their scholarships page and see if there are additional awards that you qualify for I definitely recommend doing this because there are often many additional words that are listed on a school's website that have separate deadlines they may require an essay or additional documents but it's well worth applying so that you can get that extra scholarship money for school the second type of money that you could get through the FAFSA is called work study um generally
025your student would get a certain amount through the FAFSA that they then have to work to earn so it's like an on-campus job they have to apply interview and then work to earn the money typically these jobs are in the Campus library or they might be in the cafeteria somewhere nearby to the school and students don't typically use this money for their tuition but they might use it for their personal expenses for buying their textbooks those types of things and the last type of money that you might be awarded is borrowed money so Education Loans um you would only get Federal loans through the FAFSA on private loans you'd have to apply for separately they're an outside source but the types of Federal loans that you could get would be the federal subsidized loan in
026which the government waives the interest while your student is in school so it doesn't start to collect interest until after they graduate um or the unsubsidized loan which is collecting interest while they're in school the final type would be the Parent PLUS Loan in which you can take out as a parent a certain amount of money for your child to attend school when students are looking for outside scholarships college now has three tips for them the first is thinking specific so thinking about some criteria that they match and then searching for scholarships that are similar to those if they have particularly High academic achievement looking for scholarships for students with high gpas if they did certain clubs in school if they're an underrepresented student in a particular field just searching based on all the factors
027that match up to them and trying to find ones that are specific that they can apply for also thinking locally so so looking at local Civic organizations their High School Garfield Heights High School will have scholarships that are posted in February for seniors so be on the lookout for those if they work somewhere perhaps there's a scholarship through that organization looking for scholarships that are local and thus the pool of applicants will be smaller as opposed to a big national scholarship um and also thinking easy so applying to the most obvious scholarships first ones that will have a smaller pool and thus be less competitive would be great um one resource I can recommend to you would be college now scholarship website which is money for School dot collegenowgc.org that's a whole scholarship database that's
028been compiled by the scholarship team at college now with awards that are available to students I would definitely check that out college now also has its own scholarship that it gives out to high school students the application is due at the end of March but it is open today you can find it on college now gc.org and then click the scholarships Tab and apply for the traditional scholarship there are also supplemental scholarships that are continuing to come out as the money becomes available and those will also be posted on our website the requirements for the traditional scholarship are a GPA of at least 2.5 cumulative or above and act composite score of 18 or above or a SAT score of 960 or above and then lastly the students must file the FAFSA and also qualify
029for the federal Pell Grant which is a need-based grant I certainly hope that if you meet these criteria that you will apply for this scholarship to help you with your college expenses this is my contact information in case you want to set up an individual appointment I'm happy to meet with students or parents and to discuss really any aspect of the college application process so that could be um doing the applications themselves or applying for financial aid setting up the timeline and making sure you're on track with all deadlines really anything College related my appointment link is at the bottom here I know it's a little bit long but it's also found on the Garfield Heights High School website under guidance Department there's a little tab that says college now and you can find this
030link in there it's also posted into your students Google Classroom so they can sign up for appointments with me there um you could also come to the high school guidance Department and I work there typically Mondays through Thursdays during the school day um so you could either find me directly or ask one of the guide staff to help you set up an appointment um thanks very much for coming and I hope to see you soon well wow wasn't that great information so I just want to encourage everyone's going in tonight to be mindful of the deadlines the great thing about it is that the live stream will be recorded So if you need to go back and review it at a later time just to obtain the the dates and deadlines feel free to do
031so also for those of you that may be tuning in feel free to put questions in the chat we are open to taking any questions for anything that you might have questions about this evening we're going to jump right into it we have some very special guests with us this evening who have been invited to share on their college experiences and I want each of them if you can unmute your mic if we can start off just by having some introductions um if you can just you know share your name what year this is for you at your college and what college you are attending that would be great I'm Amaya Mick Washington um this is my first year in college so I'm a freshman I'm a bio major and I went to Warrensville Heights
032High School Mr hurt invited me okay and what college are you attending I go to Central State University great thank you for being here thank you for having me hi my name is tazaria um I am a freshman at Kent State University and my major is music or music performance thank you hi my name is Sophia um I go to ursulin this is my first year and I'm a nursing major thank you so can either of you just describe for those who are thinking about going to college sometimes we think in our minds that we know what to expect can you just describe what your typical day is like so I'll start with Amaya what is a typical day like for you on the campus of Central State Central State University um it's really poem
033here is it's like a very chilled out campus it really reminds me of my high school honestly um just the way things are ran and stuff like that um the workload isn't really hard when it comes to the classes we don't have like a lot of work to stress us out and there's just a lot of other things that we could do to like take our minds off of uh work or being stressed out like we have activities and clubs and stuff like that thank you cesaria how about you what is what is a typical day like for you on the campus of Kent State well I love the campus what for one the campus is really big it's really big there's so many people with so many buildings um I have warning classes so
034I have to get up really early to go to my classes but um it's really it's really nice my classes are good um well I'm a music Major so I'm mostly patching my instrument every day and doing uh musical related work but uh yeah there's a lot of like myself there's a lot of activities here too so many clubs like when I came here I already felt like I was at home and it's a really good feeling because there's so many things to do so um yeah it's really nice here this the scenery is beautiful and it's a really good experience so far so thank you Amaya and tazaria for sharing and I know that you both stay on campus however Sophia you attend Ursuline you are a commuter what is that what is your
035typical um day like well I have all morning classes so I have to get up pretty early in the morning to be to school on time but that's okay um I really like it at my school it's pretty quiet um the workload is good but you just need to keep up with your work yes keeping up with work and so what I would like to ask is what is something that you find or you found to be a challenge maybe like after the first few weeks of that you were on you know in school and this new Journey what was what were some things that you found to be challenging or some challenges that you found yourself faced with I would say sit in a lecture for an hour and 15 minutes and like having
036to write notes though that was a big challenge for me my I don't have any I can't sit for that long like listening to somebody just talk and not have no expressions or anything but you work through it and like learning that you don't have to write every single note down a 80 Point like 80 slide you don't need to write every little thing down right so um that's the big difference from the regular class periods right in high school just jumping into that long leg and they will tell you what to write down in high school in college they do not tell you what to write down and they just say you kind of have to figure out what they're saying and put it together in your head great to Zaria Amaya would you
037like to chime in I'd say my challenge is waking up in the morning it's so hard to get up in the morning to get the classes but besides that the first few weeks um it was kind of hard to navigate where I was going and what classes and what buildings to go to at first but after a while to get used to it no like every single building on campus which is really cool but um like like Sophia said about notes that one a hour and 15 minutes is very long to me but uh it's definitely worth it with that but yeah just waking up finding my way around was kind of hard but after a while it's gotten much easier Amaya how about you well here first like here we have 50-minute classes so
038it's kind of like on the same time as high school so that was never really an issue for me my biggest issue was communicating with my teachers like here in college they're not going to come and find you if there's a problem though you have to go figure out everything by yourself so that was my biggest issue yes so how what have you done to kind of initiate having a relationship with your instructors what are some what was what are some things that you've done um I actively email my teachers like if I have a problem with something um if they have time after class or like their office hours are um like in my schedule I go talk to them if I have anything to talk to them about or if I have a
039concern about an assignment or just anything like that great so my next question has to do with thinking back on your high school experience what what is something that you wish you would have known or maybe some advice that you wish someone would have told you to make you better prepared for your college experience I would say I wish I would have known more about scholarships um in high school I really was oblivious to it I thought like scholarships what is that I don't need all those and I should have applied to more than I did because that's very very important but I wish I would have asked for a question about it because when I listen to people talk I was like oh yeah scholarships okay I'll be fine but you accidentally apply for
040scholarships that's my number one thing that I should have done more [Music] I can I'm gonna say scholarships too because I barely applied to any scholarships but everything else overall they really prepared us well at uh Lawrenceville but it really just I feel like it just depends on your relationship with people even throughout High School like with teachers and stuff like Mr hurt he used to work at Warrensville if I felt like I had an issue somewhere with college I'll go to him or another teacher it just I feel like it depends on you so if you feel like there's something that you don't understand about college or post-secondary whatever you should go talk to somebody um I would say don't be scared to talk to somebody because it's hard to figure out College out
041College like applying and fast food and everything by yourself so go to the right resources because applying for that stuff is not easy yeah so on a lighter note what are what is your most favorite thing about being on a college campus or with your college experience what's your most what's one of your favorite things foreign I think they'll say just being independent I guess it gives you a sense of more responsibility and um how to really take care of yourself and how to manage your time how to do you know everyday life because you know you don't have your parents on your side all the time anymore like yeah they'll check up on you you can call them but they won't be there to really um keep doing everything for you you know so
042I think my favorite part is really learning more about myself more about what I can do and what I'm capable of and just experiencing what it's really like to be like an adult you know so I think that's like the best part of college so far I'm gonna say my favorite part is just growing like with my friends like I came here with a few friends and it's like we're just all figuring the whole life thing without our parents out by ourselves so it's like we just get to watch each other grow up in like an independent sense so that's my favorite part my favorite part is um it's something new so I'm like I like trying to think like different things so it's definitely something new even though I commute and I still come
043home every day um I still have like a lot of responsibility on my plate but I enjoy going to college and I enjoyed meeting some new people okay and in 10 seconds or less um we're gonna close out our panel and and share some pertinent updates moving forward but in like 10 seconds or less what is what are some words of wisdom that you would like to share with some of our high school juniors and seniors who are on the fence trying to decide what to do if college is for them I'm just needing a little extra motivation what would you say to them do not stress yourself out college is not for everybody and it does take a lot of thought so if you feel like you need to take a gap year you
044should consider that because you can always go there next year great great advice I'll say I took a gap year because I wasn't ready at first but just don't do everything all at once you can take your time you don't have to do things right away to be successful or do what you want to do just take your time and slow down because you could take a gap here go to college you can leave college and then come right back be like you don't have to do everything all at once just take your time and just be patient and just you know think about what you really want to do and I promise you you'll figure it out don't stress yourself out about it um and really find the time to find yourself when you're
045going to college don't let anybody else influence you like let this Choice be for you because it's for your own future you can do what makes you happy and if College isn't for you then maybe a trade school or doing a business that's for you well thank you so much for joining us I just want to say on behalf of our district on behalf of our community we are very proud of you and we are so excited about what your future holds I can tell just with you sharing you all have Bright Futures and um we just thank you for taking the time to join us this evening and thank you to our audience for tuning in and as we close out just a few pertinent announcements one as we mentioned all of the information
046about the level of College and Career Expo week you can find more information by visiting the website also for the if there are any Juniors or seniors that are interested in going to the HBCU college fair you do need to connect with Miss Ashley Ward principal at the High Assistant Principal at the high school so that you can give her your information so that we can register you prior to the deadline so we're asking for you to sign up in the office by November 14th making sure that you have permission slips and all of those things in order prior to so that we can make trans deportation accommodations also I believe Ms Wilson had a closing announcement as well yes thank you first off thank you for our amazing guests on the call tonight guys
047are amazing and it really just it's really inspiring to hear some of your testimonies and I know you will inspire some of our Scholars that will be watching so thank you for that um a very important announcement for all senior families next week November 17th at 6 PM there is going to be a mandatory meeting for all senior families this is going to be a meeting that you do not want to miss um principals will be present to discuss some important things that you will need to know for graduation it is November before you know it it will be May and it's going to be time to walk the stage it you know next Thursday I cannot stress it enough at 6 PM a meeting at the high school and they will discuss requirements needed
048for graduation they will discuss tests that will need to be taken before graduation and also tutoring opportunities if needed as well as very important information that you and your scholar will need to know for graduation again this is a mandatory meeting next Thursday November 17th 6 p.m at the high school if you have any questions about the meeting if you cannot go please find someone that can go in your place so they can bring back that information we want to be sure that we're speaking and hitting every senior parent every senior at this meeting so please bring your bring your scholar bring a family member we want to be sure that we're sitting anything your Pam parent this night um if you have any questions regarding this meeting regarding any of our level up activities
049how to get signed up for our field trip you can reach me at 216-77-2279 again my name is Gina Wilson I'm the family community engagement coordinator um and if you have questions about the mandatory parent meeting please feel free to reach out to assistant principal Mr John Thompson as he will be able to assist you with more information regarding that parent meeting okay thank you very much Miss Wilson and a special thanks to our director of Technology Miss Sherry Bailey for making our town hall possible this evening thank you Mr Burt for joining us and also Miss Wilson and again to our special guest and again we want to help you level up so we look forward to engaging with you next week and again feel free to reach out to Ms Wilson with any
050other questions or concerns thank you so much for tuning in and enjoy the rest of your evening