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Greetings,
This month, I'm pleased to share with you some good news from Great Lakes Outreach & Access.The numbers are in from this year's College Goal Sunday held in February, and I'm sure you'll be as pleased as I am when you see how many students were helped with the financial aid process at this great event.
If you recall, College Goal Sunday is a free, nationwide event that aims to assist low-income or first-generation students and their families in completing the FAFSA. At designated sites, families bring their financial information and tax returns for assistance from volunteers, including financial aid professionals, who walk them through filling out and submitting the FAFSA.
Great Lakes supports College Goal Sunday in a number of states, including Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin. In fact, this was my second year serving as the Wisconsin statewide coordinator. I'm happy to report that on this one day, close to 1,500 in Ohio and more than 1,600 students in Wisconsin received assistance with starting the financial aid process -- a 200-percent increase from last year! Minnesota also did well, with more than 1,500 students served. Michigan had a tremendous turnout with more than 4,100 families attending throughout the state.This was a 49-percent increase from last year's attendance. I can't begin to express my delight that close to 9,000 students in just these four states can now access financial aid they might not have known about without the help of College Goal Sunday and our volunteers.
Speaking of volunteers, this year we were again lucky to receive tremendous support from so many volunteers. In Minnesota alone, a team of more than 330 volunteers worked tirelessly in 25 locations across the state. These volunteers made College Goal Sunday such a success.
Planning is already underway for College Goal Sunday 2008 with committees starting their work to add more locations and find volunteers to help with the entire process. If you're interested in learning more about College Goal Sunday, including how to help with next year's event, you can email me at lsykes@glhec.org.
As you can probably tell, College Goal Sunday is near and dear to my heart. I'm so pleased to be part of a program that helps students overcome perceived obstacles and find financial assistance to pursue their dreams of higher education. I love being involved in a program that opens doors to promising futures for so many students.
Until next time, have a great month!
La Toya Sykes, Director
Outreach and Access Awareness
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