ISAC Partners With Hispanic Community to Promote College Access

SPRINGFIELD – In anticipation of Hispanic Heritage Month, beginning September 15, the Illinois Student Assistance Commission is presenting a training event for college financial aid administrators, high school guidance counselors, and community based organizations.  The training event will focus on helping these professionals to prepare a financial aid workshop in Spanish. 

The training workshop, to be presented entirely in Spanish, will be held on Tuesday, September 13, 2005 at the College Zone Outreach Center at Moraine Valley Community College in Palos Hills.  Interested professionals can contact Eddie Brambila toll-free at 800-899-4722 for more information and to register for the workshop. The workshop will include a ready-to-use Power Point presentation in Spanish and a review of ISAC’s resources available in Spanish.

Understanding the significance of the Spanish language for thousands of Illinois families, ISAC’s website, collegezone.com, includes an area specifically for Spanish-speaking families to obtain accurate information about planning for college at their convenience.  In the coming months, a number of enhancements will be made to this section of the Web site to further promote and simplify the higher education process.

ISAC has translated many of its educational services to Spanish in order to provide these students and families assistance in learning about and applying for student aid.  Several publications describing financial aid and ISAC’s programs are available in Spanish, including a checklist for selecting a college and applying for financial aid.  Both the College Zone Web site (collegezone.com), the comprehensive resource for college information, and the College Illinois! Web site (collegeillinois.com), the state’s 529 Prepaid Tuition program, feature Web sites in Spanish.  Spanish-speaking College Zone counselors are available by telephone to help students and families plan, find, apply, and pay for a college education.  The College Zone counselors are available by calling toll-free at 800-899-4722.  And finally, to provide walk-in service to every family in Illinois, there is a College Zone Outreach Center at every community college in the state.  All of these services together make up the comprehensive College Zone outreach program, initiated and administered by ISAC.

About ISAC
The Illinois Student Assistance Commission is the State’s centralized provider of financial assistance aimed at helping students and families access postsecondary education and/or training. Each year, the Commission awards an estimated $400 million in scholarship and grant aid to nearly 185,000 qualified students, and also provides an additional $740 million to borrowers through its student loan programs. The agency offers credit-based alternative loans, a 529 prepaid tuition program known as College Illinois!, and a broad array of outreach and informational services to ensure that families have access to the information they need to pay for a college education. More information is available by calling toll-free 800.899.ISAC (4722) or visiting the agency’s Web site at www.collegezone.com.