Lifestyle
Faulty financial aid application form makes it difficult for students to plan their enrollment
WASHINGTON (AP) — After an extended summer of technical difficulties, most prospective U.S. college students finally applied for federal financial aid — an annual process that was disrupted by a botched change to the system.
The number of highschool seniors who accomplished their application for federal student financial aid was down 9% from the identical time last 12 months, according to the National College Attainment Network. That number jumped to 40% within the spring, when students typically need to submit the forms to give schools enough time to prepare their aid packages.
How much the FAFSA issues will affect the variety of students who attend college stays to be seen, advisers and consultants say. But the delays have actually modified where students have enrolled, as many students have been forced to select a university with limited details about their financial situation.
As considered one of the few black girls at her suburban Chicago highschool, Adjovi Golo looked forward to college as a time when it wouldn’t be so hard to be seen and heard. She hoped to attend Spelman College, a historically black women’s college in Atlanta.
Federal financial aid calculators told her she would likely qualify for $15,000 in loans, grants and work-study programs, but her FAFSA wasn’t processed by the May 1 deadline to commit to college. She called the FAFSA hotline 11 times to resolve the difficulty, receiving a distinct suggestion every time.
Meanwhile, DePaul University in Chicago offered her essentially the most merit scholarships. Without a full financial aid package from either school because her FAFSA was pending, she decided to enroll at DePaul reasonably than risk taking over more debt.
Golo moved into DePaul’s dorms in August. She loves her roommate, the campus, and her professors.
But one wonders what might have been different.
“I felt like I was cornered,” she said. “Part of me, like 75 percent of me, doesn’t regret it. I love it here. But another part of me wants to wait.”
The decline in FAFSA completion has been particularly painful for students who already face barriers to enrolling in graduate school, including low-income students and students of color. Advocates worry that the delays — on top of the Supreme Court ruling that invalidated affirmative motion in higher education — will affect where and whether many individuals go to college.
In theory, says Katharine Meyer, a senior fellow on the Brookings Institution, “we’re going to see less racial diversity among the student body and less socioeconomic diversity among the student body.”
Areas with high rates of poverty and places with higher shares of black and Latino residents saw a 20% greater decline in accomplished FAFSAs than higher-income areas, according to the Century Foundation, a progressive think tank. Its evaluation also found that students in those areas were twice as likely to submit incomplete FAFSAs.
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“It’s too early to tell how bad the decline in enrollment will be, but it’s not too early to recognize the risks,” said Peter Granville, a research fellow on the Century Foundation.
For students who cannot pay their entire tuition and costs out of pocket, nearly all types of financial aid—institutional, state, and federal, including eligibility for federal loans—require completion of a FAFSA.
The 2020 law directed the Education Department to simplify the FAFSA, which had been criticized as tedious and difficult, especially for families without college experience. But the 2023 launch of the simplified form has been beset by bug after bug — it went live late in December, with students encountering glitches and hours-long waits for assistance on a hotline.
Emmily Almaraz, a third-year student at Texas Christian University, said she filled out the form this 12 months in lower than 20 minutes. But the students she helped as an intern at a university access organization weren’t all as lucky.
Despite spending hours on the phone, one student couldn’t get through the verification process for parents who don’t have a Social Security number, which happens to some immigrants. Ultimately, the coed decided to delay registering until spring, Almaraz said.
“It’s really discouraging for some kids who end up finding out that just because they’re missing one piece of information, it can set them back,” Almaraz said. “It can cause them to pay for an education they can’t fully pay for.”
College housing has change into an extra hurdle for students whose families are reluctant to put down deposits without knowing more about financial aid, said Jesse Hendrix, executive director of College Possible Texas. Many are stuck with expensive off-campus options or can’t secure housing in any respect.
Some students accepted to four-year colleges are opting for cheaper two-year programs closer to home, advisers say. Chandra Scott, executive director of the nonprofit Alabama Possible, said she has reached out to state colleges, urging them to prepare for a last-minute influx of students.
“They’re going to hold out as long as they can because they might really want to go to that four-year institution,” Scott said. “But if they don’t have the financial aid resources they need to go when the time comes, they’re going to have to start making tough decisions about whether to skip a year, which we hope they don’t do.”
Counselors and advocates say students who don’t go straight to college after highschool tend to face greater obstacles to pursuing higher education. While some states have programs to help students return to school, only 4 in 10 students who don’t go straight to college after highschool accomplish that inside a decade, Granville said.
“Once you decide to wait a year, it becomes a more lonely journey,” he said. “That can hinder someone’s chances of ultimately completing their degree.”
Some students proceed to work through FAFSA issues even after enrolling. In Chicago, Golo filed a paper FAFSA in June to try to get a finalized aid package from DePaul, but she was told the agency had a backlog of paper documents. Golo said the college didn’t ask her to start paying until the documents were processed.
“I’m just scared to take the money out knowing that I might be able to lower it in a few weeks because I don’t know when it’s going to come,” Golo said of her financial aid package. “It could come tomorrow. It could come in a few weeks. It could not come for a few months. But my future is very much unknown right now.”
Lifestyle
What is GiveTuesday? The annual day of giving is approaching
Since it began as a hashtag in 2012, Giving on Tuesdaythe Tuesday after Thanksgiving, became one of the largest collection days yr for non-profit organizations within the USA
GivingTuesday estimates that the GivingTuesday initiative will raise $3.1 billion for charities in 2022 and 2023.
This yr, GivingTuesday falls on December 3.
How did GivingTuesday start?
The hashtag #GivingTuesday began as a project of the 92nd Street Y in New York City in 2012 and have become an independent organization in 2020. It has grown right into a worldwide network of local organizations that promote giving of their communities, often on various dates which have local significance. like a vacation.
Today, the nonprofit organization GivingTuesday also brings together researchers working on topics related to on a regular basis giving. This too collects data from a big selection of sources comparable to payment processors, crowdfunding sites, worker transfer software and offering institutions donor really helpful fundstype of charity account.
What is the aim of GivingTuesday?
The hashtag has been began promote generosity and this nonprofit organization continues to advertise giving within the fullest sense of the word.
For nonprofits, the goal of GivingTuesday is to boost money and have interaction supporters. Many individuals are aware of the flood of email and mail appeals that coincide on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. Essentially all major U.S. nonprofits will host fundraising campaigns, and plenty of smaller, local groups will participate as well.
Nonprofit organizations don’t have to be affiliated with GivingTuesday in any method to run a fundraising campaign. They can just do it, although GivingTuesday provides graphics and advice. In this manner, it stays a grassroots endeavor during which groups and donors participate as they please.
Was GivingTuesday a hit?
It will depend on the way you measure success, but it surely has definitely gone far beyond initial efforts to advertise giving on social media. The day has change into an everlasting and well-known event that focuses on charitable giving, volunteerism and civic participation within the U.S. and all over the world.
For years, GivingTuesday has been a serious fundraising goal for nonprofits, with many looking for to arrange pooled donations from major donors and leverage their network of supporters to contribute. This is the start year-end fundraising peakas nonprofits strive to fulfill their budget goals for next yr.
GivingTuesday giving in 2022 and 2023 totaled $3.1 billion, up from $2.7 billion in 2021. While that is loads to boost in a single day, the trend last yr was flat and with fewer donorswhich, in accordance with the organization, is a disturbing signal.
Lifestyle
BlaQue Community Cares is organizing a cash crowd for serious food
QNS reports that Queens, New York-based nonprofit BlaQue Community Cares is making an effort to assist raise awareness of Earnest Foods, an organic food market with the Cash Mob initiative.
The BlaQue Cash Mob program is a community-led event that goals to support local businesses, reminiscent of grocery stores in Jamaica, by encouraging shoppers to go to the shop and spend a certain quantity of cash, roughly $20. BlaQue founder Aleeia Abraham says cash drives are happening across New York City to extend support for local businesses. “I think it’s important to really encourage local shopping habits and strengthen the connections between residents and businesses and Black businesses, especially in Queens,” she said after hosting six events since 2021.
“We’ve been doing this for a while and we’ve found that it really helps the community discover new businesses that they may not have known existed.”
As a result, crowds increase sales and strengthen social bonds for independent businesses.
Earnest Foods opened in 2021 after recognizing the necessity for fresh produce in the world. As residents struggled to seek out fresh food, Abraham defines the shop as “an invaluable part of the southeast Queens community.” “There’s really nowhere to go in Queens, especially Black-owned businesses in Queens, to find something healthier to eat. We need to keep these businesses open,” she said.
“So someone just needs to make everyone aware that these companies exist and how to keep the dollars in our community. Organizing this cash crowd not only encourages people to buy, but also shows where our collective dollars stand, how it helps sustain businesses and directly serves and uplifts our community.”
The event will happen on November 24 from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. at 123-01 Merrick Blvd in St. Albans. According to the shop’s co-owner, Earnest Flowers, he has partnered with several other Black-owned brands in the world to sell his products at the shop. Flowers is comfortable that his neighbors can come to his supermarket to purchase organic food and goods from local vendors like Celeste Sassine, owner of Sassy Sweet Vegan Treats.
At the grand opening three years ago which was visited by over 350 viewersSassine stated that the collaboration was “super, super, super exciting” to the purpose that the majority of the products were off the shelves inside hours.
Lifestyle
Keke Palmer Recalls the Key Advice Will Smith Gave Her as a Child: “It’s Hard to Be First”
Like many young people, actress Keke Palmer went through a phase wherein she clashed along with her parents. Recently in a performance at “Toast” podcast.Palmer revealed that fellow actor Will Smith helped her take care of the situation along with her family.
As a child star who has appeared on Nickelodeon and Disney productions, the “Akeelah and the Bee” actress explained how juggling fame has affected her and her family relationships — a lot in order that she admits she once considered emancipating herself from her parents.
Although her lawyer tried to get her into counseling, Palmer said it was Smith’s words that ultimately modified her mind.
“A couple of weeks go by, I’m on the set of ‘True Jackson, Vice President’ and I get a call from a very, very unknown number. And I said, “What? If it was strange, I would not answer,” she said, mentioning that she simply went back to work. Later, while retrieving her phone, Palmer received a voicemail from the “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” star.
“Hey Keke. This is Will. We’re here filming ‘The Karate Kid’ with (my son) Jaden and I just want to let you understand that I’ve talked (to your lawyer),’ Palmer continued, impersonating Smith. “He let me know every little thing you are going through and I need you to know that sometimes it’s hard to be the first, but you may do it. Just stay focused, love your loved ones and every little thing shall be high-quality.
Palmer remembers struggling as a child with the attention and fame that got here with climbing the ladder in the entertainment industry. While trying to adjust to the demands of her burgeoning profession, the actress recalls feeling that fame meant she would have to “throw (her) family away.”
“It’s something that happens when you leave and you can become a child artist, you can be the first person in your family to go to college, or you can be the first person in your family to get married,” Palmer said: explaining her feelings at that moment. “There are so many firsts that can happen as the generations of your family grow and evolve.”
Ultimately deciding not to undergo the emancipation process, Palmer emphasized the importance of getting a healthy community when navigating the entertainment industry.
“I think I’ve always felt like a lot of people, whether they’re big names or whether they’re my lawyers, have been a good community,” she added. “Also, my parents made sure I was around (people) who would encourage community rather than discord and separation.”
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