AZ FAF$A Challenge
April 2020 Newsletter
Goal Progress
According to the most recent Federal FAFSA data, completions of the FAFSA have dropped considerably on a national level. This has been attributed to the fact that nearly all high school students throughout the country are home for the remainder of the school year. While the nation is showing a decline in FAFSA completions, Arizona is standing strong with a 1% increase in FAFSA completions year-to-date. According to NCAN's Form your Future FAFSA Tracker, Arizona is ranked 6th in the nation in FAFSA completions year-over-year. With a 40% FAFSA completion rate as of March 27th, the state's 1% increase is a victory; especially when the majority of other states are experiencing a drastic decline in FAFSA's during this unprecedented time.
To help you keep up the momentum, virtual support is available to assist students and their families in completing the FAFSA, college applications, and college-going initiatives. College access organizations throughout Arizona have answered the call by moving helpful services online. It’s important for students to note that despite the fact that they are not physically on campus anymore ALL of the support services are still available to them.
As a friendly reminder, here is a list of FREE virtual FAFSA resources
Benji, the FAFSA Chatbot - Students can text their FAFSA questions 24/7 to 602-786-8171, AskBenji.org.
College Depot is still providing personal assistance with financial aid, admissions, and all things college. Students can request a virtual appointment with a College Depot Advisor using this link: bit.ly/2VeM1sF
The Northern Arizona College Resource Center (NACRC) is accepting virtual appointments. They have advisors on hand ready to work with students and families individually through email, Zoom, or phone. Anyone needing assistance can reach them by phone at 928-523-1803, as well as via email through nacrc@nau.edu.
Regional College Access Center in Tucson, AZ is accepting virtual
appointments by calling 520-670-0055 or booking online at www.metedu.org/rcac.Be A Leader Foundation is offering virtual appointments to assist students with their FAFSA, college applications, next steps, and college enrollment.
Click on the following link to complete the web form and schedule an appointment:
https://bit.ly/college-going-support
For any additional questions email them at support@bealeaderfoundation.org.
AzCAN is offering virtual professional development to help college access professionals stay up to date on their post-secondary access skills https://buff.ly/32gjpkl
Arizona State University (ASU) has accelerated plans to provide learning tools and materials to keep all learners on track by launching ASU For You. ASU For You includes many learning tools at no cost such as virtual field trips; library access; video lessons, labs and simulations in K-12 subject areas; badge and certificate programs in areas such as health and well-being, smart cities and environmental science; tutoring, online courses and training videos for teachers or parents teaching from home; and courses for college credit.
- AZ FAFSA Toolkit- The AZ FAF$A Challenge website has a FAFSA toolkit that provides a number of FAFSA resources for students, counselors and parents.
21 day virtual FAFSA challenge- Begins 4/11!
Attention ALL High Schools!!! The AZ FAF$A Challenge is excited to announce the launch of the 21 day virtual FAFSA challenge! This newly created competition was created to promote FAFSA completion while schools, students and the world have gone virtual. The challenge will run from April 11th- May1st! The schools with the highest increase in FAFSA completions between this 21 day time-frame will be awarded a laptop to award to a high school senior of their choice who has completed the FAFSA! Winners will be awarded in each of the following: small, medium and large senior enrollment categories! This is an exciting new challenge to recognize more seniors and schools for their work towards FAFSA completion! This challenge will be in addition to our existing awards for 1) Highest FAFSA Completion Rate and 2) Most Improved FAFSA Completion Rate!
All schools listed on the AZ FAFSA Completion Dashboard are eligible to win! The three winning schools of the 21 day virtual FAFSA challenge will be announced in the May 2020 AZ FAF$A Challenge Newsletter. Let the games begin!
AZ FAF$A Challenge
With the new AZ FAF$A Challenge competition deadline of May 1st, schools still have time to encourage and assist their seniors with the FAFSA. The Highest FAFSA Completion Rate and the Most Improved FAFSA Completion Rate challenges are heating up as school rankings are shuffling from week to week. We are thrilled to be able to award the winning schools a 2019-2020 AZ FAF$A Challenge trophy and 2 laptops per winning school to award to 2 seniors of their choice who have completed the FAFSA! This is an exciting time to celebrate all of the hard work that counselors, teachers, staff, and high school seniors have put in all school year. Give yourselves a round of applause for continuing to encourage college- going initiatives such as completing the FAFSA and applying for a 2-year college, university, vocational school, military or certificate program.
All winners will be announced in next month's AZ FAF$A Challenge Newsletter!
Access ASU Sparky’s Spotlight
Access ASU is uploading Sparky’s Spotlight videos weekdays at 3pm on their Facebook page. The videos offer college readiness information focused on ASU admissions, enrollment, new student orientation, financial aid, school district services, and other resources in order to assist high school seniors as they continue working toward being college-ready. The videos feature experts from each field who share information and provide contact information for additional questions.
Check out their current collection of videos and stay tuned for new videos every weekday at 3pm: https://www.facebook.com/AccessASU/$500 Scholarship Opportunity
The Arizona Commission for Postsecondary Education is excited to announce its fourth annual C2GA marketing suite scholarship contest! This contest is a fun and creative scholarship opportunity for students who enjoy graphic design and marketing strategies. Competing students will create a marketing suite for the College Goal FAF$A and College Application Campaign programs. The winner will be selected through an online voting system and will receive a $500 scholarship!
The contest is open and accepting submissions through 8 PM on April 27. The online voting through social media will be from May 4th - May 13th. The winner and their school will be announced on May 15th. Encourage your students to participate in the scholarship contest!
For more information visit: http://tiny.cc/C2GA2020C2GA Scholarship Winners
The Commission is excited to announce the winners for the 2019-2020 C2GA Scholarship! Each year four (4) seniors are randomly selected to receive a $1,000 scholarship. Students are selected from a pool of all seniors who completed the Student Exit Report after their College Application or College Goal FAF$A workshop.
This year's four winners hail from:
Casteel High School (Central AZ Region)
Glendale High School (Central AZ Region)
Miami Jr./Sr. High School (Southern AZ Region)
Mingus Union High School (Northern AZ Region)
The Commission will offer this scholarship opportunity again next year so make sure your students are completing the Student Exit Report! If your school is interested in participating in the College and Career Goal Arizona (C2GA) programs, please contact the Arizona Commission for Postsecondary Education at acpe@azhighered.gov.
Contact Us
Email: azcpe2@gmail.com
Website: FAFSAChallenge.az.gov
Location: 2020 North Central Avenue, Phoenix, AZ, USA
Phone: 602-542-7230
Facebook: facebook.com/Collegegoalaz
Twitter: @collegegoalaz