12/4/2015

By Elizabeth Castillo and Joshua Langeliers

On Tuesday, December 8th, at 6:30pm, it is FAFSA night at PHS. We encourage all the high school seniors to attend this special event. For English speakers, it will be held in the PHS Commons and for Spanish speakers it will be in the PHS Library. Presenters will be going over a lot of information that is very beneficial for parents to hear, especially since much of the information required on the FAFSA needs to be provided by a parent.

The FAFSA, or Free Application for Federal Student Aid, is a form that students fill out to apply for federal financial aid. To award eligible students with grants, scholarships and federal student loans, the government assesses the information that is included on the FAFSA. Some of the information that is requested on the FAFSA includes your incomes, what aid the student is interested in,and what school they plan to attend.

Phoenix High School holds a Financial Aid Night every year,because the school understands that college is expensive and wants the students and parents to be aware of the variety of financial aid that is available for them.These include federal aid as loans, grants, work study programs and other types of aid like scholarships and non-federal grants. The seniors need to know what school they want to attend before they file their FAFSA to help find the one that is right for them.The school wants to provide families with the information they need to be able to complete the FAFSA and other applications smoothly because they know that your time is valuable. PHS wants to do the best to make the financial aid process as painless as possible.

Students should hopefully get meaningful information out if this event. There will be guest speakers, such as Debbie O’Dea, a financial aid counselor from Southern Oregon, University who will discuss the FAFSA application. Emily Umess, a representative of the Oregon Student Aid Commission, will also present about the Oregon Promise Grant, as well as the OSAC Scholarship application, Which awards students tens of thousands of dollars each year.We expect that this event will be beneficial for any of our students or parents who attend. We hope to see everyone there. For any more information, questions, or concerns, contact Michelle House in the PHS Future Planning Center.