For many students, struggling to pay for college has become a difficult obstacle to overcome.
The Cash for College workshop is designed to help students by assisting them during their financial aid application process.
The workshop was held in the Transfer Center Nov. 7 and provided students with professional assistance filling out financial aid applications.
Financial Aid Supervisor Monica Rodriguez said, “The goal of the workshop is to help students start their financial aid applications and provide answers to any questions they might have about the process.”
The Cash for College workshop is part of a statewide campaign that visits high schools and colleges with pop-up labs.
This is the third year the workshop was held on campus with about 30 students showing up. Although the event was last Wednesday, students can receive help with their financial aid application year-round at the Career/Transfer Center in SA-227.
Students are encouraged to visit the center whenever they have any questions about financial aid.
The Cash for College workshop is exponentially helpful to students when filling out their financial aid application for the first time. It also helps students who have already filled it out in years prior and have questions about it.
Second-year kinesiology major Javonne Johnson said he filled out the financial aid application on his own in previous years, but showed up to this year’s workshop to get some help.
“I normally fill out the application on my own, but a few things have changed on my application since last year. I had some questions, which they were able to help me out with.”
This wasn’t the first time he got help from the workshop.
Johnson said, “The first time I ever filled out my financial aid application back in high school it was with the help of the Cash for College workshop. The workshop was held in my school when I was a senior.”
Johnson said it would have been really hard without the workshop. It is great for everyone, but especially students filling out their financial aid application for the first time.
The workshop has CCC alumni on its staff and they spoke about the significance of the workshop on this campus.
Financial aid assistant Alfredo Cardona was a student at CCC and was around before the workshop was on campus.
“This is great because for students like myself, we didn’t find out about financial aid until university. I’ve been with the program for a year now and we have visited all the major high schools in the area and have built a good relationship with students,” Cardona said.
“Sometimes students end up coming here and they already know some of the people in the Career/Transfer Center. They remember the staff that visited their school with the Cash for College workshop.”
Without the help of Cash for College, some students wouldn’t be able to completely fill out their financial aid applications.
Liberal arts major Katherin Phan said, “It would have been hard for me to fill this out on my own. I’m glad there are people that can help us fill out these applications.”
“I also thought there’d be a lot more people attending the workshop. People should take advantage of the help provided by a service like this.”