001oh and good afternoon everyone I want to start off by thanking everyone who is currently on the call and those who will be tuning in later my name is Gina Wilson and I am the family and civic engagement coordinator for Garf a hike city school district I want to start out off by introducing everyone on the call we have miss Yolanda Hamilton who is the diversity equity and inclusion consultant for graphite city school district we have miss Sheree Bailey who has been amazing in assisting us with our technology and I want to start off by doing a short introduction to college now and our presenter so College now is the not-for-profit organization it has been helping students as well as adult learners achieve their dreams of going to and succeeding and certificate two-year and four-year
002degree programs for more than 50 years college miles mission is to increase post-secondary educational attainment through college and career access advising financial aid counseling and scholarship and retention services College now works with middle and high school students in schools and community-based across five Northeast Ohio counties in our advisors create a college-going culture in the schools by engaging students and their families individually and in group sessions reaching over 29,000 students and adult learners a year many of our students are from low-income families in our first-generation college students failure is a college adviser who with college now Greater Cleveland she is an expert in financial aid and the college going process she has been with college and now since 2014 and worked for a sister college access organization in Columbus for five years prior to moving to
003Cleveland so without further ado miss Valerie around welcome and thank you for joining us today thank you for having me I'm very excited to be here especially to talk to our outgoing seniors woohoo class of 2020 let me just start out by saying congratulations let's all give them like a pair of claps or something so congratulations to the class of 2020 first and foremost I know that this school year probably has not gone exactly as planned things have been cut short we have had to improvise with things like prom and senior clap outs and graduation even so this is a has been one for the books one for the books that hopefully we will not have to repeat again unfortunately it happened in 2020 to you guys and hopefully we'll be able to get past
004this and we'll be you know as they say up here strong together staying together by you know staying apart and all of that that we'll be stronger together so I am here today just to talk about what next what are you going to do once you do graduate I know graduation is coming quickly upon us in the next couple of weeks but what are you going to do the day after graduation obviously in this day and in this time we've got some incredible challenges if you're planning to go to a two-year or four-year university we still have you know challenges with that there are colleges I believe making any of you may have seen that the California public school system or the College Public Schools Cal State has decided to put all of their classes
005online for this fall some other states are beginning to make their determination I was just speaking with my son who has just finished his freshman year College he was obviously cut short and had to come home a little earlier than he anticipated as well he happens to be a d1 student-athlete and had to lose his track season this outdoor season but we were just having a conversation before I got on here about the University of Akron and how they're cutting some of their sports programs for next year so you know these are again these are going to be difficult times all of us are going to have to work together and all the information that I'm giving you today it's going to be a little fluid because we have to be flexible because we don't
006know what's going to happen for students that are going to go off to college that are going to have college campuses that are open if you're going to be taking virtual classes and doing them all online or if you're planning to go into the workforce where are where can you find a job that is currently hiring or will be hiring in the next six months or 12 months once you can earn some sort of credential so let's get into it without further ado and see what we're going to talk about today one thing that I will mention is at the bottom of every slide there is a phone number you can text any questions or comments that you have throughout this session and we're going to be answering them in real time so that number
007for anyone who just may be listening is 2 1 6 7 7 7 2 2 7 9 and that will go right to gina wilson who just introduced me or if it's easier for you to email or you can do that again right here in real time that will be G Wilson at GH Bulldogs org so this is on every single slide so hopefully you don't need to run and get a piece of paper but if you want to take notes that would be great too so what we're going to do today is talk about some of the options that you have so for students as Gina just mentioned I work for college now Greater Cleveland we're a college access organization we've been serving the community for over 50 years now some if your parents
008may be on here or have gone to college way back in the day it used to be called Cleveland scholarship program so this is college now and that's what what it was and what it is and we basically transitioned to more college access so it's not just about the scholarship it's not just about the last dollar scholarship opportunities that it's more about a holistic advising approach and so I am the college adviser at Garfield High School this is I think my third year at Garfield and I hold different sessions throughout the school year again like I was saying about your high school career getting cut short my days at Garfield also were cut short so this is us trying to be creative and innovative to still come into your home and give you the opportunity
009to still get all of your questions answered overcome any objections that you have about what you're going to do next it's like I said it's all about figuring out what you're going to do after graduation so we're going to talk about the FAFSA which is the Free Application for Federal Student Aid we'll talk about different options that are available for students who are graduating then I have a little quick shout out that I want to give to a couple of the scholarship winners and talk about how if you feel like you still need to make an appointment with me you still have the opportunity to do that and again we'll have question-and-answer time throughout you can again send those you can send text messages two to one six seven seven seven to two seven nine
010or email Gina at Gina or I'm sorry email Gina at G Wilson at gh Bulldogs org so let's get started all right so let's talk a little bit about the FAFSA and what it is and all of these things so basically it's not too late to complete the FAFSA so if you especially if you were planning to go into a certificate program if you're planning to go into let's say Community College and even some four-year universities it's still not too late to complete the FAFSA what you will need to do that is have an FSA ID and that is something that the parent the parent that the student lives with as well as the student will need to register for so you can create that account by going to student aid or or you can
011go and you can see right here on this page FAFSA DD gov I'm sorry I said student org I'm in studentaid.gov I apologize for that but if you go too fast oh gee D gov as well you will be able to get to the launch page where you can create an FSA ID it's basically going to be used as your electronic signature to sign the FAFSA document the information that you will need to complete the document for the 2020 21 school year is year 2019 taxes and so that is going to be the time sorry excuse me I was thinking I was going to be presenting to juniors today it's actually you're 2018 taxes which you would have completed last year so that'll be 18 for the class of 2020 my apologies I was running
012through putting this thing together and we I made a mistake there so I apologize for that so it is year 2018 tax documents and that is what you will use to complete your twenty twenty twenty-one FAFSA which is the college year that you would be attending your freshman year or first year of a certificate program let's see so let's talk a little bit about your option so two year let me go back your two-year and four-year college opportunities so the questions that I have for you are did you apply to a two-year or four-year university did you receive your acceptance this may have been something that you did way back in the fall in October November December January that you would have received your acceptance and completed your application did you also receive your award
013letter back from the school so that means if you completed your FAFSA if you received an acceptance from a college then you would receive an award letter back from that school and that would determine if you're going to have enough money to go to school or was there still a gap there and did you apply for some of the local scholarships through college now did you receive any of the local scholarships through Garfield Heights and did you apply to any other scholarships that may have been available to you out in the community and in organizations so my question is if you're planning to go to a four-year university have you reviewed your award letter do you have enough money to go if you are in a situation where you don't know you don't understand then
014this would be an opportunity for you to ask some questions of me maybe set up a one-on-one appointment so that we can go through and see if financially you are going to be able to make that transition to that particular college or university some of the other options for students who are graduating who are interested in maybe taking some time before they go to a two-year four-year university for a two-year degree an associate degree or a bachelor's degree maybe a certificate program I did a little bit of research and found out that tri-c has some wonderful programs this one I actually within my organization we have our weekly meetings and we have other folks who are sharing resources with us and so we had the directors of this particular program Advanced Technology Academy approached us
015a couple of weeks ago and they did a presentation about this particular program so as you can see it's available for students who are between the ages of 17 and 24 they are going to be virtual for the most part as much as possible for the classes that they can possibly do this term but they have several different training areas and this may be a little blurry to see but 911 operators basically auto technology MT Industrial welding procedure and machinery technology Private Security stna so state tested nursing assistants many of these programs are going to offer you a paid internship so they're also going to be short term so that's the goal of a lot of these programs is to get you right into the workforce and many of the programs are going to are
016going to be around eight weeks to four months long so about a semester or so at most and also there are certificate programs that go along with that so some of those programs can be in manufacturing information technology other fields besides stna other healthcare opportunities welding public safety and construction so there are programs at tri-c that you can still apply to today that you could start either the summer or this coming fall that would lead you directly into a career path and many of these are not career paths that are going to have you you know spending a lot of time in the classroom it's going to be more hands-on experience the teachers the experts are going to be from these particular industries so it's not just about getting that book or book work it's
017about getting that hands-on training where you would be able to be able to apply those skills immediately in to that particular area of expertise the there are another couple of these that I would call out specifically is Swagelok and if you look on tri seeds website and some other organizations have direct hires so they will hire you directly out of this program because they are having a hard time filling these roles and these again are going to be careers that are going to start out maybe at fifteen eighteen dollars an hour and then as you get into that career twelve months later you may be able to earn a raise 24 months later you may be able to earn a little bit more money so this is something that you will be able to again
018hit the ground running with the skills that you have learned and it would give you an opportunity to you know decide if this is something that you're interested in doing or then you can go back and continue on with an associate degree at tri-c or or go and transfer those credits to a four-year university as well and go on and earn your bachelor's degree if that's what you choose to do do we have any questions at all Gina that are coming in so far nothing yet okay alright thank you so I won't say if anybody has any questions about anything texts that at the bottom it's 206 777 to 279 or email Gina at G Wilson at gh Bulldogs org all right so I did want to give a shout out to the class of
0192020 there were three college now scholarship winners so far we actually still have some special scholarships that required essays that have not been awarded yet they are working through those as quickly as they possibly can to award them so hopefully in the next week or two we hopefully will have another scholarship recipient or two from Garfield Heights that would be great I actually am a college advisor at three different schools at Solan at Bedford and Garfield Heights and actually Garfield had the most of all of my schools so I was really happy about that so these are the three winners Jen saya Malachi Amina they all are going to receive a college now scholarship they have to do some additional paperwork and things like that before they know exactly how much the award is going
020to be but the minimum is at least a thousand dollars and it's a renewable scholarship so they will continue to receive that for four years while they're in their undergrad program and the most important part of our college now scholarship recipients is that they will also be paired with the mentor throughout their undergraduate experience so they will be working one-on-one with someone who is paired with them almost like a match.com to make sure that they have the same interest and expertise or the same field that they're interested in and they're going to be paired with someone who's going to you know will be their sounding board somebody that they will be able to rely on someone that they can communicate with when they're having issues and troubles whether it's you know personal issues or whether
021it's I just don't know how to schedule my classes next semester or what do I do about my roommate issues so it'll it'll be an opportunity for students to not just go to their friends or their parents you may always take their side but someone who's going to be a little bit more professional and say here's let's think about it this way let's you know navigate and work through that way so I think that honestly is the best part having a college now scholarship is the mentor piece because we have been working diligently to pare-pare students for the last several years our college now recipients tune to stay in school after their freshman year more so than other students I think our success rate over the last five years is around 89 or 92 percent
022of students matriculating or going from freshman year into their sophomore year versus the national average which i think is closer to about 67 percent that end up coming back to school from freshman year into sophomore year so these students will have that advantage for those students who have not are not the scholarship winners I would encourage you to still try and find someone who will be a mentor for you because mentors are very important people they usually are someone that's gonna stick around in your life not only while you're in this you know two-year four-year program of putting your college degree but usually mentors stick around for an entire lifetime we I've had people in my life that you know have been that for me and they continue to be there and I actually have
023a mentee that has that was I was a college adviser in Columbus before I moved to Cleveland we moved up here in 2014 and this was a young lady who graduated high school in 2012 and I got a text from her yesterday so we are in contact quite often she comes to my house she actually still lives in Columbus but she will come and she will come and visit me anytime she has any you know thoughts of of doing one thing or another she will call and ask me now she has not graduated from college yet and so of course that's what I always keep impressing on her like girl you got to get back in college you just you just got to you've got to so you know this was someone that is very
024special to me and again we've had this relationship for almost 10 years now now she calls me her God mom because you know it sounds a little cooler I guess then calling her me her mentor so now I'm her godmother on Sunday she texted me happy God mommy's day and all of that so it's nice to have people around that are gonna be in your corner that are gonna look out for you and I would encourage each and every one of you to find someone like that someone that you look up to someone that you admire that you may be able to you know develop a connection with to keep you you know help keep you on track it helps that all of us need somebody like that in our lives let's talk a little
025bit about the one-on-one appointments that we have available so my ally yes I'm sorry we had one question come in about the scholarship is there still an opportunity to apply for a scholarship or has the deadline passed so for the college now specific scholarships the deadline has passed that was weeks ago that's why we were able to make our selections of some of these students however I would encourage you to continue to look for scholarships if you send me an email and say that you're still looking for scholarships I will send you a list of resources that I currently have the college now website actually has a listing of scholarships on there a great deal of scholarships for the class of 2020 have been divvied out really honestly at this point but you can probably
026find a few here or there but that doesn't mean that in the fall you won't have the opportunity to apply to some additional scholarships so they they kind of Rev back up it kind of you know rev up at the beginning of the school year and throughout the school year and then after right around this time right around graduation it's they kind of are in the distribution phase and then they kind of pick back up again and maybe July or August so they may not be specifically for the class of 2020 but they may pay for students who are continuing their education or plans to go to school so you if you email me the Herero h AR re ll and it's on the screen now at college now GC org and just let me
027know that that's what you're interested in I will you know do my best to put you in touch with some resources to continue to apply or some some dollars some free money because I obviously that's what we're all looking for when we're going to college and how expensive it can be also my one-on-one appointments if you email me I will be holding one-on-one appointments they will be from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. next Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday so that's every half hour is what I plan to do so 11:00 a.m. 11:30 12:00 12:30 and so on next Tuesday Wednesday or Thursday if you sent me an email let me know the day time or maybe send me two dates or times that may work for you and then I will email back to you and
028confirm your specific appointment time and then we can either do it over the phone or we can set up a zoom meeting I have soon so we can set that up and we can do a face-to-face that way so that we can kind of talk about where you are so I do have these times available currently and we'll see if we need to open up some additional times but hopefully Tuesday Wednesday or Thursday of next week 11:00 to 2:00 will work if it does not work and it does not just does not work with your schedule and you still feel like you need some assistance the college now resource center is still open so it's open virtually so if you email info at college now GC org or call the number or just go to
029college now's website if you go or google college now Greater Cleveland on our front page there is a listing that tells you all the opportunities you have for different resources it is going to give you an appointment time you'll be able to schedule an appointment I'm right online and that can be for scholarships it can be about financial aid it can be about application stuff it can be about even for parents who may be on the line right now if the parent is interested in going back to earn some sort of a credential or something like that we do assist parents and adults as well through our Resource Center so I would encourage you to take advantage of that by calling two one six two four one five five eight seven or goes through the
030college now website or send an email and they can get you connected as well to some of these other resources that may be available to you all right so we are getting close to the end I want to see if there are any questions I can throw some things out there if we want to keep you know going a few more minutes I'm going to ask again that if you have any questions feel free to text that or email right now to Gina and we will get those addressed anything do you want to talk Gina anything about anything that I've said or having a mentor or you know any of these I actually had another student send another question they are really interested in having a mentor and appreciate it learning about how helpful that
031can be and is there a specific place where she should look for a mentor how does she go about looking for a mentor and if you can speak on that a little bit okay so finding a mentor it really is all about who you know it's all about your network and the people that are around you so someone who may be important to you you know maybe you had a really cool connection with one of your teachers or someone that you work with or a boss that you've had along the way once your network gets into a place where you are going off to college to a two-year or four-year university it could be a professor at that particular institution maybe an organization that you've been involved with or any sort of club I would
032like I said with the young lady I was the college advisor at the high school but I was also the drill team advisor and so she was actually on drill team - and so our connection came from you know me being her drill team advisor probably more so than her college advisor at the time so I would just encourage you to look look for a responsible adult someone who you know is you know they don't necessarily have to be you know doing all of these wonderful crazy career that is paying a million dollars a year it just needs to be someone who is responsible trying to do the right thing who who would give you you a little bit of time and effort and energy occasionally to have a conversation to you know kind of
033bounce ideas off of someone that you know that you consider to be someone who is worthy of sharing you so that would be what I would suggest when you're looking for a mentor so start with your start with your circle but not this close of a circle so I'm not saying it should you know necessarily be your mom or your auntie but it but it could be I guess someone outside of your household that you are response or or even connecting with those people you know if your honor's your favorite person in the whole wide world maybe someone that she's affiliated with maybe you can could she could connect you with her best friend or someone that she has that she shares a connection with that you know that it seems like that would be
034a good place for you to start I don't think that you want to necessarily someone and like I said so close in your corner that it's always going to take your side so I think it's more important to make sure that you have some connection with the person but also to make sure that they are going to be you know even and responsible with your with your situations hope that helps I think that was great I do have a question so for those students who have been accepted into college and they're kind of at a standstill right now like okay what do we do next orientation has been cancelled I haven't received a call from anyone so far who do I contact who do I reach out to now to see if I can get
035some answers okay so I guess it really depends on where you are in that in that pathway you know if orientation has been cancelled they have been I know some colleges especially in Ohio have been rescheduling them to offer them virtually some have just been postponed and are hoping to maybe have them in June or July it would make sense for you to contact or reach out to the admissions office reach out to the college has a first year experience office to get that information as to what you are supposed to do and make sure that you're checking your email because they have probably emailed you a hundred times to tell you here are the next steps here's what we plan to do now but it may change to option B so here's what we're
036going to do like I was saying about classes a lot of us are hoping and praying I'm hoping and pray and my son goes back to school too because we finally had an empty nest and I was looking forward to this time you know back with my husband again like we had before he came home so all of us are hoping and praying that college campuses are going to be open this fall and hope that students will be able to do all of those things this summer to prepare like going to Bed Bath & Beyond and Target and doing your registry and still having you know people bring you gifts or at least send you money so that you can purchase these things so that when you do leave you are well prepared but it
037does every every school is every college university is probably going to handle things a little differently I would suggest reaching out to that particular school and and the admissions office or the first year experience office to find out what they are specifically planning to do again hopefully you've received those acceptance letters you've received those Award winners because making sure that you have enough money before you get on campus is probably the most important thing so that's why I bring that up again that you know looking for those scholarships or if you're going to take out you know the parents are going to take out a Parent PLUS loan to assist in paying for school those are all the things that we also have to worry about but let's say if a class if a college
038is planning to not have you come and live on campus this fall semester you could be saving five seven thousand dollars just because of that so you know the state universities in Ohio and most state universities are somewhere between ten and maybe twelve thirteen thousand dollars for the room and board portion so if you don't go in the fall then they can't expect you to pay that twelve you know that half of that twelve thousand dollars and so you may be able to find that it's that you will be able to work things out there are also some discussions about lawmakers adding to the Pell Grant for this school year we know that there are a lot of folks who have been you know lost income whether they've lost their job or taken a pay
039cut or had to go find another job that's just not paying what they were paying so we know that there are also going to be a lot of students who are going to be planning to file special circumstances with their college as well because the like I said you used your 2018 tax information when we filled out your FAFSA so things are completely different in 2020 and can be completely different that's the case too you will also want to reach out to the financial aid office at your particular University to request an outline and say okay I my family has had some challenges my mom lost her job we need to file special circumstances because things are just not what they used to be so that can also have your FAFSA your financial aid revisited
040we looked at so the colleges can make a decision and determination if you're eligible for additional dollars and they would they would contact the school's financial aid department correct for that information exactly okay and request special circumstances serve that yes special circumstances is what the term is that's and then the college administrator would use their professional judgment to determine if a student is eligible for additional resources awesome all right so those were the questions we had any other tips or things to remember you want to throw at us before we end the session well I think that the most important thing is if you have questions to ask them you know this is the time now as a senior as an almost graduate of high school this is the time where you have to advocate
041for yourself so if you have questions you have to be the one you know at the front of the ship making the decisions about your your life and your circumstance and your plan I encourage everyone to have a plan I always I to do a presentation and several years ago for an organization and I had a saying it was about finding gee it was a GPS and it's all about you know the same GPS that we all know the global positioning but it's graduation purpose and success and the only way to you know achieve things is to make sure that you're setting goals that you're achieving those goals by you know chipping away one at a time on those long-term those short-term goals that turn into long-term goals that you don't get frustrated you don't
042lose sight of what it is your your end result your end goal is so that graduation we're getting ready to put a checkmark next to that box so now we have to figure out what our purpose is so that we can succeed our own success and you get to define that it's not always about making a million dollars a year it could be about just being able to enjoy and do what it is you have a passion for doing so fine fine what's important and special for you what's inside of you and bring it out and let the world know because each and every one of us are unique individuals we're all very important and each of us has the opportunity to you know let our own light shine and I hope and pray that
043that is what the class of 2020 does and is able to do in in all of this chaos that we're currently facing it is still you know the the world and the future is still bright certainly stay safe as we go through all of this but the world is certainly bright and you still have advantage every opportunity as long as you ask questions and make sure that you use the resources that you have available to you starting with all of us here on the call and you know utilize the people that are around you that can help you be successful no one gets there by themselves and you know use people along the way in a good way use people in a good way to get where you need to go we actually have one
044more question come in so a student asked a lot of schools are doing test optional in their application now for AC TN SAT test scores is it a good idea to do them even though it's not needed right now so that would be more of a quiz so for the class of 2020 I think most students would have already applied and have submitted their scores so for the class of 2021 this may be more of a question for those individuals because this tests have been cancelled you know April May June test dates you know canceled postponed whatever you want to call it for the actn SAT I would encourage you to check all of the colleges that you plan to attend or plan to apply to or have applied to and see if those specific
045schools are test optional some are doing that others are not so you can't just say oh I'm not gonna I'm not going to take the test because at school a is test optional there's going to be a lot to learn about schools that are going to go test optional because many schools right now use not only your GPA but your a CT or SAT score to determine scholarship levels so if they're only going to be using your your GPA and your school's profile to determine that I'm not sure how the scholarship the merit based money that you would be entitled to is going to be divvied up based on that so and and you can even look on some school's website youngstown state I believe Ohio University some schools publish okay if you have a
0463.0 and a 20 on the AC t here what your merit-based award is going to be but if but none of them say if you have a 3.0 or a 4.0 and you don't have any you know a CT score here's what it's going to be many of the test optional schools are going to be are going to be schools that maybe kind of a higher tier of education I don't know how to say that you know maybe some more Ivy League's may consider doing things along those lines or some of those top-tier hard to get into schools may do something like that because the majority of students are going to already test and they're already going to know that these are students who are not only are able to sit and take this one
047test on this particular day and get a great score but they've also throughout high school have proven it with their GPA as well so long long way to say I would continue to test if you have the opportunity to test but for the class of 2020 it's pretty much too late because I think the next test date is not until June and that's if it doesn't get pushed back I'm not even sure if that was going to happen I think that's around you 13th or something about a month away but I'm not exempt yeah I believe it's June 13 is when the next a CT is scheduled SAT is not doing another test until the fall so for the class of 2020 you're really kind of beyond that cycle of testing thank you so I
048want to thank everyone Thank You Valerie for providing us with this information I want to thank the seniors and senior families that have tuned in or will swing in to watch this session I want to strongly encourage seniors and families to participate in our next Thursday level up Thursday with Ohio means jobs to get placed in drawing to win a prize for attending both sessions and I also want students and families to also know that they can continue to send us questions if they have them and if you send them to me I will be sure to forward them to value Valerie or if you want to just email Valerie directly directly that would be fine too but it's just a huge thank you for everyone who participated and assisted in getting this going today
049thank you very much so families and student thank you have a good day and tune in so that's next Thursday with Ohio meat shops