Clarke Central High School College Adviser Gabriel Smallwood poses in the counseling office on March 22 with a flyer for CCHS College Financial Aid Night. Smallwood planned the event with students’ needs for college in mind. “(FAFSA is) gonna be very important especially to the students who plan on going to college and they’re gonna need money for college. It (provides) good scholarship opportunities and just financial assistance for college,” Smallwood said. Photo by Angel Jara
CCHS will host their second College Financial Aid Night of the 2023-24 school year to help students complete FAFSA applications.
Clarke Central High School will host the College Financial Aid Night in the Miller B. Jordan Memorial Food Court on March 28 at 6:00 p.m. The event comes as a part of the CCHS counseling department’s initiative to assist students with the college-planning process.
According to CCHS College Adviser Gabriel Smallwood, the event serves as an opportunity for college-bound seniors to complete their Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) applications and ask questions to financial aid representatives from the University of Georgia, with Spanish language translators present.
“It’s always good to have support because some students haven’t been through the (application) process before,” Smallwood said. “(Students) might still have family who have done the process before but it’s been so long since they’ve done it, (and) they need help answering certain questions in the process.”
“It’s always good to have support because some students haven’t been through the (application) process before. (Students) might still have family who have done the process before but it’s been so long since they’ve done it, (and) they need help answering certain questions in the process.”
— Gabriel Smallwood,
CCHS College Adviser
CCHS senior Jenaii Jackson believes that the FAFSA was beneficial in her college planning process and that the event can benefit others.
“I think it can benefit a lot of students who don’t have people to help them,” Jackson said. “It provides opportunities and also some more tips that they can use and they can also use the workshop to help either their siblings or friends in the community.”
According to Federal Student Aid, filling out FAFSA allows students to request federal grants, work-study, and loans for college. Smallwood hopes that the event allows for students to further the opportunities they have for pursuing a higher education.
“Overall, (the event has) a big impact, because you never know who wouldn’t have been able to ask for help,” Smallwood said. “I just wanna see students bettering themselves and taking that initiative to come and take part in a piece of that journey and complete something that they are going to need overall for college.”
