Clarke Central High School college adviser Brionna Johnson (left) helps senior Joshua Daniels fill out his Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) at FAFSA Night on Feb. 26 in the CCHS Media Center. According to Johnson, events like FAFSA Night are helpful but wishes it received higher attendance. “If it was me, I would love to have all 350 seniors sitting here and getting everything done all at once. Even if they’re unsure if college is for them or not, it still may change their mind to have funding from the government to let them go,” Johnson said. Photo by Audrey Enghauser
Clarke Central High School hosted its fourth Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) Night of the year on Feb. 26 in the CCHS Media Center.
Seniors and their parents were presented with the opportunity to attend FAFSA Night, an event dedicated to filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, in the Media Center from 6-8 p.m. on Feb. 26.
This FAFSA Night was also the last one of the 2018-19 school year.
“The benefits of filling out a FAFSA is that one, you can see if you qualify for federal aid from the government, which is free money from the government,” college adviser Brionna Johnson said. “Also, many colleges and universities and scholarship programs also require to have FAFSA information just to have proof of income and to know basically what kind of financial situation your family is in.”
Johnson, a college adviser through the Georgia College Advising Corps, an outreach program at of the University of Georgia’s Institute of Higher Education, coordinated the event. She feels events like these are beneficial because they give students and parents a time to work on the application together.
“A lot of times, if I have students in my office, and they’re wanting to get it done, we don’t have mom’s social (security number), or we don’t know when the parents were married or there’s some kind of issue like that,” Johnson said. “If everything is straightened out, (completing the FAFSA in) 30 minutes (is) definitely possible. But a lot of times, it takes closer to an hour, or even an hour spread out a couple of days just because we need to gather information first.”
In addition to Johnson, financial aid representatives from different organizations were available to assist students.
“We have the Georgia Student Finance Commission rep here, so the Georgia Student Finance Commission is who’s in charge of the HOPE scholarship,” Johnson said. “We also have three representatives from the University of Georgia’s financial aid office, who are just lending some of their time to volunteer at this event, and they do financial aid all day long, interacting with parents and students, so they are very helpful to have here as well.”
Senior Joshua Daniels, who attended the event, feels that having a specific time to work on financial aid documents outside of the school day was helpful.
“Teachers love to pile work on work on work, and you don’t have all the time in the world. But, when they make time for you, between these hours, then (I have time to work on college-related things),” Daniels said. “As long as you have a plan, and stick to that plan, then you can try to make sure you have money behind your plan, make sure you’re supported throughout the whole process of whatever you’re going through.”
