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For those of you who were able to attend our Fall Update Sessions, you already know about the new service we are offering free of charge to all Illinois students, high schools and colleges through our Web site. This interactive, online resource, College Zone’s IllinoisMentor, provides students and their families an easier way to explore careers, choose a college, apply for admission, and find ways to finance their college education. 

We truly believe this new, free service will help all students throughout Illinois realize that they can go to college.  And, based on the overwhelmingly positive feedback we received from you, we think you agree. 

We want every high school student in Illinois to know about collegezone.com and all the terrific career and college planning tools it provides.  As our partner in the educational pursuits of students, we’re asking for your help getting our message to students!  Sharing information with your students about College Zone and IllinoisMentor not only benefits them, but may also win you two free Dell computers for your school!

Throughout February and March, ISAC is sponsoring a drawing to give away 24 Dell computers.  Twelve winning schools will receive two computers, one for student use at your school and one to be given away to a student from your school, for the student’s home use.   There will be one winning school from each of 12 geographic regions throughout the state.  The winners will be announced in April 2006.  

Watch your mail for a box with a bright green label coming your way this month - it has all the details!

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New at College Zone

• A new subscription group has been added to the College Zone e-Messaging service for Public Libraries.  Those working in libraries are encouraged to sign up to receive information about ISAC’s programs and services on a regular basis.
• To support the launch of IllinoisMentor (see article on page 3), we made a few changes to the home page of the Web site.  Access to IllinoisMentor is through a link on the right side, directly above the Parent and Student Zones access areas.  We also added a new Career Center, on the left side of the home page, with general information, a self-assessment area and a listing of careers.
• Accessing the Spanish microsite is now easier, with the addition of an “Espanol” button in the blue tool bar across the top of the home page.  Or you can still use the access button on the right side of the page, which is no longer a drop-down box, but a direct link to the microsite.
• Program applications are now easily available directly from the home page by clicking on “Applications” under the “Publications & Applications” heading.
• So that the most recent and most important program information is front and center in the ISAC Gift Assistance Programs area, we’ve moved “Program News” so that it’s the first thing you see when you visit a program page.  This ensures that you’re not missing crucial details about the programs you administer for your students. Program overviews are now available through a right menu link.
• All information about outreach, including details about College Admission & Preparation (CAP) activities and event calendars, has been centralized under the Outreach heading on the home page. 
• The items in the e-Library have been rearranged and the descriptions shortened to allow for quicker access to the items you use the most.
• The Counselor Zone Message Board has a “More” area at the bottom, where messages that are a couple of weeks old now reside.

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Publications Update

As your college-bound students begin to make plans to choose a college, apply for admission and find out about financial aid options, now is the time to provide them with the best possible resources to help them through the process.  Check your brochure inventory and make sure you have the most recent versions of these publications on hand:

• Federal Stafford Loan Guide – 3/05
• Federal PLUS Loan Guide – 4/05
• College Selection/Financial Aid Checklist – 11/05

And coming soon are freshly-designed and updated versions of:

• Financing College – A Guide to ISAC programs
• Thinking About Financial Aid – The Financial Aid Process [previously Thinking About Financing College]
  

(Continue to use the current versions of Financing College and Thinking About Financing College until the new ones come out. They’re still usable and contain all of the important information your students need.)

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Bringing College Access to the Forefront

As many of you heard when you joined us at the 2005 Fall Update Sessions for High School Counselors, there have been some organizational changes at the Illinois Student Assistance Commission.  This past summer, a new division, Public Service, was created and with it two new departments: Community Partnerships and Access Initiatives.  The changes were made in order to streamline and maximize outreach activities throughout the state. 

The Regional Outreach Coordinators with whom you have worked in the past are still your contacts for college fairs, financial aid nights and other events at your schools.  Tracy Stewart and Aida Martinez are based out of the Springfield office, and Maria Bucio works in the Deerfield office.  Together, this team of three Regional Outreach Coordinators works to ensure that all students in Illinois have the opportunity to receive complete and reliable information on planning, finding, applying and paying for college.

Under the leadership of Eddie Brambila and Jacqueline McMahon, Assistant Directors for Community Partnerships and Access Initiatives respectively, the Regional Outreach Coordinators now also work to develop, together with our partners in the community, new programs and partnerships that foster early awareness and equal access to higher education.

Listed below are just a few of the projects that the team has been hard at work on since July.  For more information on any of the projects, or to suggest something new, please contact Eddie Brambila via email (ebrambila@isac.org).

• Outreach to Parents – Recognizing that many students rely on their parents to make decisions about higher education, Maria Bucio has developed a series of workshops for parents without prior college-going experience.  The series, which spans the entire academic year, includes an overview of the college and financial aid application process, a FAFSA completion workshop, a consumer-based comparison of financial aid award packages, and campus tours.  The project is currently in a pilot phase in the Chicago area.
  
• IllinoisMentor @ collegezone.com  – In response to feedback from high school counselors and middle school teachers, Aida Martinez has developed a classroom guide that can be used to lead interactive college and career planning lessons.  The guide gives educators step-by-step examples of how to use collegezone.com to promote college awareness as early as the 8th grade.  The materials were tested with Federal TRIO Program participants and should be available for wider distribution this March.
  
• Presentations with Audio – Tracy Stewart is responsible for a major enhancement to our traditional “financial aid night” presentation.  The presentation “Financial Aid For a College Education” is now available with voice-over.  This new feature will allow busy counselors to simply press play and let the presentation run – as many times as needed!   The presentation is not yet available at collegezone.com, but requests are being taken on an individual basis.
  
• Vertical Outreach Teams – A group of education professionals in Rockford has been hard at work with Jacqueline McMahon to create the first Vertical Outreach Team.  The purpose of the team is to bring together a middle school teacher, high school counselor, financial aid officer, and member of a community-based organization from the same area to develop early awareness and college planning programs that begin in elementary school and continue through the college years.   New teams are welcomed!
  
• The Tax Assistance Program – Eddie Brambila continues to work with the Tax Assistance Program (TAP), the largest non-profit provider of free tax preparation assistance in the nation, to promote timely FAFSA completion.  The ISAC – TAP partnership allows low-income families in the Chicago Metropolitan area to receive free tax preparation and FAFSA completion assistance every Saturday from January through April.  In 2005, in ZIP codes where a TAP site operated, on-time FAFSA filing increased almost 17% compared to a 1% decrease statewide. 

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Other Updates

Proposed Rules Amendments – Proposed rules and amendments to ISAC’s Administrative Rules have been submitted for publication in the Illinois Register, which will initiate a 45-day public comment period.   Anticipated to be published on February 17th, the applicable Illinois Register will be available for reference via a link in the ISAC Administrative Rules area (#3) of the e-Library after that date.   Amendments are being proposed to 15 different Parts this year.

State Update – the Spring session of the Illinois General Assembly is currently underway, with an earlier than normal scheduled adjournment date of April 7.  Because this second year of a two-year cycle is limited to emergency legislation and budget bills, very few bills that impact higher education will be considered.  For a complete listing of proposals that affect ISAC and/or student financial aid programs, refer to the State Legislative Update area (#13) of the e-Library.

Federal Update – On February 8th, President Bush signed the Higher Education Reconciliation Act of 2005, a bill containing numerous amendments which will affect college students, particularly those with student loans.  Included among the amendments are changes to student loan limits, interest rates, eligibility for the Federal PLUS Loan Program, the consolidation loan program and available deferments, to name just a few.  For an in-depth overview of the provisions contained in the bill, as well as the effective dates, access the Federal Information area (#11) of the e-Library. 

The pending Reauthorization of the Higher Education Act (HEA), originally scheduled to be completed in 2004, continues to be “on hold”. With the programs covered by the HEA currently extended through March 31, 2006, it’s unclear when Congress will again take up discussions of reauthorization legislation. The latest information about Reauthorization is also available in the Federal Information area.

College Zone's e-Messaging Service - Sign Up Now! Get the latest Counselor News & Updates!

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Questions?

Questions regarding articles in this Communiqué can be directed to our School Services Representatives at 866.247.2172 or through e-mail at schoolservices@isac.org.  On occasion, you may be directed to a specific contact person or area; when this occurs, we will provide the appropriate information in the individual article.

The Illinois Student Assistance Commission disclaims all responsibility and liability for the reader's reliance on information contained in this publication as it may represent only part of the complete guidance on a topic or have been superseded by subsequent communications, publication(s) or changes in State or Federal law.

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