Fort Wayne Community Schools’ “FAFSA Effect” Gains Momentum

FORT WAYNE, Ind. – A free event presented jointly by Fort Wayne Community Schools and Purdue University Fort Wayne will be held Wednesday, March 27, from 4:30 to 7:00 p.m. in Kettler Hall on PFW’s campus to help FWCS’ senior students and their families complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). Universities and credential programs use the FAFSA as a basis for their offers to students of financial aid toward education or training after high school. The FAFSA form must be filed by April 15, 2019, for consideration for state aid for the 2019–20 academic year; the federal deadline is June 30.
 
FWCS seniors who complete the FAFSA at the March 27 event will have the chance to earn a scholarship to Purdue Fort Wayne. Completing the FAFSA by March 29 will provide further opportunities for prom tickets or Visa gift cards.
 
The rewards are part of “The FAFSA Effect: You’ll never know if you don’t FAFSA,” a campaign to emphasize the importance of completing the form. The initiative was funded by a $35,000 grant from the National College Access Network (NCAN) made to the Northeast Indiana Regional Partnership, in collaboration with Purdue University Fort Wayne and Fort Wayne Community Schools (FWCS). Prior activities included monthly “FAFSA completion” events at FWCS’ Family and Community Engagement Center (FACE), special events in each of FWCS’ five high schools, various communications and competitions, and counselors from both FWCS and PFW working with families. FAFSA student ambassadors at each high school provided their peers with information and encouragement.
 
“We are in the final stretch of a lot of hard work and dedication by FWCS, Purdue Fort Wayne and the Northeast Indiana Regional Partnership teams to increase FAFSA completion across the district,” said Krissy Creager, interim vice chancellor of Student Affairs at PFW. “We are looking forward to further increasing FAFSA filing before Indiana’s April 15 state deadline. Hats off to the FAFSA Ambassadors at FWCS for all the work they’ve done to help their classmates!”
 
Along with increased awareness of the need for filing the FAFSA and help with completing it, the FAFSA campaign also has provided students with information about the process of college application and admission and trade career education options. Shenita Bolton, K-12 college and career readiness manager for FWCS said the goal is to help all students prepare for success after high school graduation. “Even if students are unsure about their plans for the future, we want them to complete the FAFSA so that options remain open for them for financial assistance. We are very happy that more than 40 percent of our seniors have already completed the form, and we expect many more to file in the next few weeks.”  
 
Students will need at least one parent or legal guardian to complete the FAFSA. Families will need to have their most recent tax return available in order to provide information needed on the form.
 
For further information, email Shenita Bolton at Fort Wayne Community Schools at shenita.bolton@fwcs.k12.in.us or Krissy Creager at Purdue Fort Wayne’s financial aid office at finaid@pfw.edu. High school seniors and families can also receive help completing the FAFSA by going online to fafsa.ed.gov or calling 1-800-433-3243.

To learn more, visit the website at www.neindiana.com/news.

About the Northeast Indiana Regional Partnership

The Northeast Indiana Regional Partnership’s mission is to build, market and sell Northeast Indiana to increase business investment. Founded in 2006, the public-private partnership strives to build a globally competitive region. The Partnership’s Vision 2030 framework supports collaborative regional efforts to increase per capita income, population growth and educational attainment by focusing on business attraction, talent attraction and talent development. The Partnership represents 11 member counties: Adams, Allen, DeKalb, Huntington, Kosciusko, LaGrange, Noble, Steuben, Wabash, Wells and Whitley. For more information, visit www.neindiana.com.