ISAC Reaches Out To Spanish-Speaking Parents Of High School Students

Joliet, Rockford, Kankakee training sessions to help Hispanic students obtain college planning, aid

CHICAGO, IL – A major push to inform Spanish-speaking parents of high school students about state student aid programs is the cornerstone of Hispanic Heritage Month activities of the Illinois Student Assistance Commission (ISAC), the state’s chief provider of financial aid and counseling to college-bound students.

The agency announced it will conduct three training sessions - entirely in Spanish - for college financial aid administrators, high school guidance counselors and community activists to help them organize financial aid workshops for Spanish-speaking parents and students.

“The path to the American Dream is education and the mission of ISAC is to ensure access to college for every Illinois high school student,” said ISAC Executive Director Larry Matejka. “We recognize the unique hurdles first-generation children of immigrants have to overcome. By training professionals to organize financial aid events in their own communities, we can reach immigrant parents at the grassroots level who may feel intimidated by the college planning process.”

The free, 3-hour training sessions include a PowerPoint presentation in Spanish which details the college planning resources available to high school students such as ISAC’s innovative IllinoisMentor on collegezone.com Web site, and the many scholarship and loan programs offered through ISAC. The training sessions will be:
  

	Friday, September 15, 9:00 a.m. Joliet Junior College T Building, Room 1001, 1215 Houbolt Road, Joliet
	Friday, September 29, 9:00 a.m.  Rock Valley College Woodward Technology Center, Room 141, 3301 N. Mulford Road, Rockford
	Wednesday, October 11, 9:00 a.m. Kankakee Community College 720 N. Greenwood (Room TBA), Kankakee

This is the second year ISAC is observing Hispanic Heritage Month with such an initiative. Last year’s event in Palos Hills trained 70 professionals who in turn convened financial aid events serving more than 20,000 Spanish-speaking families.

“By empowering people to organize financial aid events in Spanish, we are embracing Cesar Chavez’ credo of ‘si se puede’, or ‘it can be done’. This is what Hispanic Heritage Month is all about,” said Eduardo Brambila, ISAC’s Assistant Director of Public Service.  “Valuable college planning tools are available from ISAC, but we need to make sure Spanish-speaking parents are aware of them. No student in Illinois should be denied essential college planning simply because English is not their parents’ native language.”

Recent census data found 1.1 million Illinois Spanish-speaking people who indicated they do not speak English well. If only a fraction of these residents are parents of high school students, there may be tens of thousands of families unaware of college planning resources.

Brambila noted a recent study (“Perceptions of College Financial Aid Among California Latino Youth”, by Maria Estela Zarate, Ph.D. and Harry Pachon, Ph.D., TRPI Policy Brief) which found serious misperceptions among Hispanic teens about college affordability and the availability of government loan and grant programs. The study contends Latinos will continue to be underrepresented in higher education institutions “…because Latino students may perceive that college costs are higher than they really are.” And without full knowledge of financial aid options, “…many Latino students inadvertently forfeit their opportunity to attend a college.”

In addition to the training sessions in Spanish for financial aid and guidance professionals, ISAC’s bilingual staff conducts free outreach events across the state reaching thousands of Hispanic students and their parents every year. Workshop topics include “What Parents and Students Need to Know About Choosing a College”, “Resources for Immigrant Students “ and “Dollars for a College Education”.  Upcoming Hispanic Heritage Month events targeting Hispanic students are slated at:

• Cristo Rey High School, 1852 W. 22nd Place, Chicago (September 9)
• Streamwood High School, 701 W. Schaumburg Road, Streamwood (September 12)
• Northtown Academy, 3900 W. Peterson, Chicago (September 20)
• Benito Juarez High School, 2150 S. Laflin, Chicago (September 20)

For information, visit collegezone.com and click on “ESPANOL”.

According to the Illinois Board of Higher Education, at least 55,000 Illinois college students were of Hispanic origin in the 2004-05 school year, yet only about a third of Hispanic students in Illinois received the Monetary Award Program (MAP) grant.

With Hispanic students comprising a growing proportion of elementary, secondary and college student populations across Illinois, ISAC has made Hispanic outreach a year-round priority. Most ISAC brochures and its comprehensive Web site – collegezone.com – are available in Spanish, as well as the Web site for College Illinois!, the state’s 529 prepaid tuition program. A toll-free hotline (800.899.4722) offers Spanish-speaking counselors to assist students and parents in planning, finding, applying and paying for a college education.

The Hispanic outreach efforts of ISAC have earned the agency national recognition. In fact, ISAC staff will address the prestigious Tomas Rivera Policy Institute’s Annual Education Conference in November to explain ISAC’s successful collaboration with the Tax Assistance Program to help low-income taxpayers with high school children complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).

More than 7 percent of ISAC’s workforce is Hispanic, including the agency’s General Counsel, Deputy General Counsel and other senior staff. This figure is nearly double the Illinois public sector average of 3.7 percent.

To register for the training sessions in Joliet, Rockford or Kankakee, contact Eduardo Brambila at 847.948.8500, x3708 or register online at collegezone.com.

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.