By BRIANNA LUSK, Staff Writer
Monday, September 17, 2007
Printed courtesy of Imperial Valley Press, El Centro, CA

Guadalupe Almenara has her hands full filling out college applications and deciding what the next step in her life is going to be.

Along with convincing her mother to support her move out of the area, 17-year-old Guadalupe also is thinking about what it is all worth.

How she’s going to pay for college, she said, is a daunting question.

“It’s scary at first,” Guadalupe, a senior at Holtville High School, said. “But in the end, it’s going to help your future.”

As a first-generation college applicant, Guadalupe is like many other high school students who are faced with relying on financial aid to go to school.

At college fairs around the Valley this week, Eddie Avelar said he hopes those students and their parents find some answers.

“I don’t think some are aware of how much money is available,” said Avelar, the assistant director of California Student Opportunity and Access Program.

With publicly funded universities’ tuition costing up to $7,000 a semester in California, Avelar said students should start with one form.

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, is the most critical document for those seeking additional funds to go to college, Carey Fristrup said.

Fristrup, the Imperial Valley College outreach coordinator, said it is the starting point to finding aid at schools and through the government.

One application will transmit the student and parent information to determine whether they qualify for grants, loans or work study programs.

Low-interest loans can be vital to middle-class incomes, whose dollars may not stretch to pay the rising costs of tuition, Avelar said.

Completing the application properly, Fristrup said, is where most prospective financial aid recipients drop the ball.

“Some fail to send the signature page. They submit their application and it just sits there,” Fristrup said.

Beware of FAFSA application scams, he said, by companies who aid in filling out the forms for a fee. Fristrup said help in filling out FAFSA forms is available to any student regardless of what school they plan to attend.

School counselors and workshops are a resource for scholarship information and aid in filling out financial aid documents, Avelar said.

And although Imperial County is predominantly low-income and Hispanic, Avelar said students can use that to their advantage.

Alejandro Tinajero, programs director for the Hispanic Scholarship Fund, said privately funded organizations are an underutilized resource for minorities.

“There’s a lot of money out there for Latinos,” Tinajero said.

Schools are also looking to diversify their campuses, hoping to draw more Hispanics, Tinajero said.

Avelar recommends students apply for any scholarship they qualify for and take advantage of local organizations that offer smaller dollar amounts.

“They all add up,” Avelar said.

Alejandra Lopez, 18, said she discussed how her family would pay for college with her parents during the summer.

“We’re thinking about a loan if I don’t get enough in scholarships,” said Lopez, a senior at Holtville High School.

With her parents’ support, Lopez said she has done the footwork locating and sending out scholarship applications.

“It’s not difficult but it’s a lot of work,” Lopez said.

>> Staff Writer Brianna Lusk can be reached at blusk@ivpressonline.com or 337-3439.