By Bill DeBaun, Senior Director of Data and Strategic Services
Reading time: Four minutes
Last year, $3.58 billion of unclaimed Pell Grant dollars were left on the table – a cornerstone of
federal financial aid and a critical piece of the puzzle for students who are first-generation and from low-income backgrounds. Completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is complicated and with completion rates low for many students,
it is increasingly a priority for many support organizations.
When this number caught the eye of Jarian Kerekes, Head of Social Impact and Community Engagement at Equitable, he knew an opportunity to have an impact awaited. Equitable Foundation, the company's charitable giving arm, is a partner of the National College
Attainment Network (NCAN) and a longtime champion of college attainment and persistence, through programs such as its Equitable Excellence Scholarship.
“As a first-generation college student myself, I navigated the college admission process with minimal assistance and it was challenging at times,” Kerekes recalled. “Working with subject matter experts such as NCAN allows our organization to provide tools
and resources for students in similar positions as they pursue post-secondary education.”
Equitable Foundation was already partnering with a group of six Charlotte (NC)-based nonprofit organizations to make college more accessible to students, including Road to Hire (R2H), whose work
on FAFSA completion caught the eye of Equitable’s Social Impact Team.
How Their Relationship Took One High School’s FAFSA Completion Rate From 44% to 99%
R2H works with employer partners and universities to diversify workspaces and interrupt cycles of intergenerational poverty. The R2H High School program serves
six Title I, low-income high schools in Charlotte. Students in this program take a R2H class for credit, learning technical skills, professional development skills and college and career readiness to work towards debt-free college and high-earning
careers. As part of this work, R2H is addressing historically low FAFSA completion rates through a unique approach.
With support from Equitable, R2H delivered a 99% FAFSA completion rate following their fall 2022 semester, compared to the
44% completion rate of the six Charlotte Title I high school’s that weren’t being served by Equitable and R2H. Road to Hire Program Manager, Allen Davis, credits their high FAFSA completion rate to their relationship-based model approach.
"Since the start of their journeys with us, the R2H team has worked to build strong and intentional relationships with the students in our classrooms. We leaned on these relationships to create customizable learning FAFSA experiences to motivate and empower
our students and their families towards completing such a complex process. I really believe it's because of our relationship-based model approach that we reached the number of FAFSA completions we did," Davis shared.
R2H leveraged their established and strong student relationships to build a six-week curriculum to educate and empower its students and parents to complete the FAFSA process. During this six-week curriculum, R2H walked through the FAFSA competition process
step-by-step - from creating their FAFSA profiles and showing which documents need to be completed by just parents to how to submit the completed FAFSA application.
R2H's relationship-based model approach extended beyond their six-week curriculum teaching. Paired with the financial support from Equitable, R2H utilized their strong student relationships to poll their students and create fun, custom incentives and
rewards for FAFSA completion based on student wants, such as unique experiences, hospitality, and access to sporting events and concerts. Based on the success of this curriculum, R2H intends to strengthen and expand the program in the years to come.
“It was an intentional, innovative approach that allowed our collective impact,” said Kerekes. “We met with R2H and discussed our shared objective to ensure students were completing and gaining access to aid that would ultimately provide more postsecondary
opportunities for students. We believe our combined efforts with R2H to ensure a comfort level with the FAFSA process, in addition to unique college tours and helpful information necessary to navigate college, was the perfect recipe for success!”
To learn more about R2H’s unique approach and how Equitable Foundation is measuring their impact, be sure to confirm participation at the 2023 NCAN National Conference being held in Dallas, TX, October 16-18. Equitable, Road to Hire, and research partner UNC Charlotte will present more information on their unique partnership and results during their panel at 2:30 PM on Tuesday, October 17,
entitled “Breaking Down Silos, how nonprofits can work with companies to build creative partnerships.”
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