There were several inspirations for me deciding to pursue a career as a school counselor. The main impetus was assisting my daughter with the college application process. In that process I also helped some of her friends that were also desperately seeking guidance on the tedious process of college applications. Now, having started down the path of receiving a Master in School School Counseling degree, the passion of wanting to help kids get to college has only grown stronger for me. In order to research this topic further, I attended a “Cash for College” workshop at Vista High School on January 31st to see how school counselors are assisting their students fulfill their college dreams with one of the most tedious parts of the college application process – financial aid forms.
The Cash for College workshop focused on assisting students and parents with FAFSA and Dream Act applications. It encouraged participants to bring a parent/guardian with them along with necessary financial documents needed to fill out the applications. Cal Soap volunteers, school counselors and other school administrators were on hand to help with the process. The school counselor had 5 classrooms set up with computers with a specific emphasis in each classroom. Volunteers made sure that computers were set up to the appropriate website and helped people get started and complete their applications.
The organizational sponsors of the event were the California Student Aid Commission, CalGrants.org, Cash for College and was run by Cal Soap and the Vista School Counselors. 
SDSU Students Represent!!
From this event, I learned the importance of setting up workshops like these for all high school seniors when I become a high school counselor. I conducted informal exit interviews with participants and everybody could not stop talking about how helpful this workshop was for not only helping them understand how to access financial aid but actually helping them complete the paperwork. Regardless of ethnicity or income, the parents in attendance all had smiles on their faces as they left, knowing that they are one big step closer to helping their kids get to college by having completed these forms.
The workshop seems to be a result of Solution-Focused Group Counseling. The smiles on the parents’ faces said to me that their miracle question had been answered with this financial barrier partially removed. One major barrier to college for undocumented and financially strapped families is money and understanding how it is even possible to pay for college. By providing this workshop to families, school counselors have found a way to fill that gap. The workshop’s effectiveness will be easily measured by reviewing the number of applications filled out each year by graduating seniors, and seeing the amount of financial aid that students receive as a result of completing the applications at the workshops. The workshop can be easily replicated at any high school, assuming there are enough computers and volunteers available to conduct it. If there is a shortage of either computers or volunteers at a school, counselors would need to set up very small groups instead one big school-wide group. The workshop was held on a Saturday which appeared to be a convenient time for families. There were more than 100 families in attendance, out of about a class of 700 seniors.
In conclusion, attending the Cash for College workshop heightened my excitement about putting similar programs in place in a high school someday. The benefit to parents and students is invaluable. Overcoming a major barrier to college for hundreds of students and their families through one simple day of assistance provides a major return on investment for everybody involved in the process.
For more information about Cash for College, please visit http://www.csac.ca.gov/ccfc.asp. Here you will find all the information you need to set up one of these events at your high school or where to find one in your local area.
Thank you!
Carey Cimino
SDSU Graduate Student
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