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WFAA 14/15 Early Awareness Committee Kick Off Meeting
8/6/2015
9 a.m. – 2 p.m., WSAC Conference Room, 917 Lakeridge Way SW, Olympia
Meeting called by: April Tovar Villa
Attendees: John Garrigues, Rebecca Hightower, Ron Noborikawa, Sherri Peterson, Trinity
Huttner, Brittany Johnson, Marie Monek, Mary Gutierrez, , Susie O’Donnell, Sativah Jones
Please bring: Calendars so we can plan future meetings/fall trainings
9 – 10 a.m.
Committee Member Introductions –
WFAA mission statement
Review Purpose of Committee
Strategic Plan
Review of 14/15 EAC completed goals
Review 15/16 EAC projected goals
10 -11 a.m.
WSAC (Washington Student Achievement
Council)
Introductions –Sarah Weiss, Becky Thompson,
Anna Batie
Overview of 12th year Campaign
Partner with EAC in all HS Counselor Trainings with
12th Year Campaign
11– 1:30 p.m.
Fall Trainings (working lunch)
Train the Trainer:



Sites
o
Dates
o
Site Contact
Marketing - timeline
o
WFAA Webpage
o
Flyer
o
Partners
Training Content
o
Module updates – allow for
12th year Campaign addition,
agenda
update COA/AL, review
modules
o

Prepping binders – copies,
supplies
Registration
WFAA Conference HS Counselor Track: October
14 -15, Hotel Murano, Tacoma



Marketing - timeline
o
WFAA Webpage
o
Flyer
o
Partners
Training Content
o
Module updates – allow for
12th year Campaign addition,
update COA/AL, review
modules
o
Prepping binders – copies,
supplies
Registration
National College Fair: Rep at National College Fair
1:30 – 2 p.m.

Seattle – Friday 10/16 9 a.m. –
noon; Sat. 10/17 noon – 4 p.m.

Spokane – Wed. 10/21 – 9 a.m.
– noon; 6 – 8 p.m.,

Portland – Friday 10/23 – 9
a.m. – noon; Sat. 10/24 1 – 5
p.m.
Wrap – up 
Reminder WFAA Conference, Oct. 14 16, Hotel Murano, Tacoma
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Notes:
By laws:
Updating website and also make sure to have handouts for high schools by fall
Make sure to be using the WFAA website. Update committee members for WFAA
Update minutes on website
Highlights of 14-15
Talked about southwest college fairs and attendance. Ron gave overview of college fair.
Need to look into the fall cycle and see where we are to see if they want us to go back again. Figure out a way to make sure
that we are aware of what and when we need to do this. Get clear verification of who can be doing this. Vendor last year was
signed and this was concerning because of the community perspective. Regional committee – looks like Seattle is the concern
with vendors. Charging for booths for the Seattle one and not the eastern one. Concerns can be brought up to NAACC and
PNACAC. Concern should come from the committee and bring up to Regional affiliate. Find out what the umbrella is – Sherri
agreed to reach out to see what the guidelines are. IF Seattle is outlier we will then pursue – goal to make sure we keep it
easier for the east side, not make it harder.
WSAC concerns with how undocumented students are advised by DOE vs state. WASFA vs FAFSA. Requested to provide links
for where to go to complete if you are from one of the 11 states.
John concern about conference and attendance in regards to overlap.
Spring fair in Seattle and see if WFAA is interested in attending. 3rd weekend in April, about 1200 students, mainly juniors and
some seniors. We all agree we would be interested in attending.
Went over supplies from last year:
Small budget from last year – blew the budget. This year we were told to continue to do it – but this last year we will be
outsourcing the printing costs. Binder, jump drives, binders.
Finding a high school counselor list, had to go to multiple people, and realized we were missing people from our high school
counselor list. April looked into creating a list and has compiled a better list for the current year. Find as many touchpoints as
possible.
Increase our training sites – add another site and keep it at 50 people,
Next year add a site for the peninsula.
Presented at 3 sites, the WSCA high school conference and also the state conference.
Apprx. 225 high school counselor or staff attended one of the five EAC financial aid trainings. Financial education public private
partnership and Sherri presented an FA presentation. About 25 people came to the session. Tools to take back to the
classroom for financial education. Received great response from last year. This is a training/annual conference. Financial
Literacy – also another training called Jump Start. Sherri can reach out. Mainly teachers who attended. K-12
PNACAC annual conference will be St. Martins next year. Submit proposal – end of may is the conference. Proposals need to
be done earlier, Sarah will forward to us – usually early February.
Achievers Program and upward bound. Tie them into this to make sure they are giving accurate information for this.
agenda
More outreach to schools for everyone in the school. New wave of counselors coming to specialized situations and they are
not as familiar with FA.
Department of Financial Institutions was there.
Look at partnering more with financial literacy. Gear up.
Update goals to add reaching out to community.
Train the trainer sites:
(also reaching out to additional sites)
Location
Site - lead
October 5-9 9-2
trainings, try to get a
response by next
Wednesday.
Is this does not work
– we can try to do the
week of the 19-26,
but this gets into the
FAFSA completion
and 12th year
campaign.
Spokane
Spokane Falls / ESD
Educational School
District – HS are use to
going there for clock
hours.
Sherri / Dave
North
DigiPen/Lakke
Washington Technical.
Possibly Bellevue or
another school there.
Trinity
South
Clark College looking to
partner, waiting to hear
back from admissions
April
Tri – Cities
WSU /
Conference
Tacoma Murano Hotel
October 8 Teresa has
a booking.
Mary / Teresa /
Jordan
Fridays are good days according to the counselors 9-2, then when they are done they get to go home. Can overlap days with
two events.
Rebecca Hightower can pull a CB volunteer as well for the Spokane event she thinks.
Tri- cities budget limited – October for tri-cities should have a good turnout.
Pave the Way conference (October 5/6, 2015) will draw about 100 from the Tacoma area.
Spokane - Gonzaga, implementing a site fee - food costs can be high and this is something that we are looking at schedule with
Spokane Community college and would need to use their food costs. This was for
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UW Dream Contract in another outreach - College Access Now (CAN) would be another organization to reach out to.
Futures Northwest - Sherry Campells group in Bellingham. They also have partnerships with the western FA office – connect
with WSAC to ensure to get list of updated partners.
Anna Batie found HS needs confirmation of what they know – print out certificate and that the counselors know they “know.”
Address a site lead at each site – this person will be the contact for each site.
$4000 budget. Will more likely use more this year most likely. Charge a $10 fee a person and they will receive a continuing ed
credit. For the conference it will increase $120 for the year. Let the gear up program know about these so that they can get
approval for the expense. WE can get Gear up contact list from WSAC.
Partnering with 12th year campaign this year. Adjust the info this year. Have some k-12 vendor support. There si a vendor
support to see about getting this as a sponsor for next year. Will help fiscally.
Training evals - will continue same day training eval as well as add end of year training eval and use the feedback to build next
year’s program.
Would like more information on the DACA and helping the HS getting this information out and help them tie in both DACA
and also the WASFA. Trying to shift the culture at the schools with FAFSA completion nights and make the students
understand what is available.
12th year campaign – Anna Batie
College application completion applications taking place. Using state and national tools to explore different types of colleges.
Focus on preparation. Both in school and event placed.
In school campaigns produce more applications. Lessons on personal statements. Ask the schools to have an event the last
week of the campaign. Hoping for 80 schools to participate.
Student workbooks about what it takes to go to college.
College Goal Washington – statewide FAFSA and WASFA completion initiative.
Looking at making changes to the event and the model to support so many events. Expensive for events. Looking at more
sustainable resources and templates
Train the trainer combine with the CGW site leads.
Look at letting them know where to update and receive info later from CGW for FAFSA updates, dates are set for all the
trainings already. We can also put together a FAQ for the counselors and add to the binders. These can also be used to help
update the WFAA website FAQs,
Marketing – April will work on this – it’s a beast.
Britney designing flyer and presentation templates. Branding color template – look at presentations. The flyer will need to be
done as soon as possible for WFAA and the dates.
WCHSCR – Washington College Fall Counselor Workshop, High school counselor relations. September 14 Jana Jarasy –
admissions at eastern Washington.
Volunteer for the Binders and printouts, the jump drives - April/Trinity
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Presenters – April/Trinity
Continuing ed credits – April and Trinity
10-10:30
Types of Financial Air and Resources Available
10:30-11:00
College Bound.
11:00-11:30
12th year / completion initiative - demo
11:30-12:00
Scholarships - Local
12:00-12:30
Cost of Attendance – Capturing and comparing costs
12:30-1:00
Award Letters from different types of institutions/ shopping sheets
1:00 – 2:00
Q and A at the end.
Sarah will draft a sentences for the flyer.
Make sure we mention how CB and the completion is all linked – start a rally for the HS counselors to ensure they know the
students’ needs to submit the application prior to the Feb deadline.
Best practices for the HS folks. Sherri will look at us uploading the resources and combining everyone into one.
Presentations need finalized by the beginning of September so can provide content to get loaded on flash drives.
Power Point leads
Anna and Sarah
12th year and FAFSA completion
Becky Hightower
College Bound
Scholarships
Setiva and Becky
localize
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Cost of Attendance
Ron
Award Letters
Ron
Dreamers
Becky Thompson
Types of Aid
Suzy and John
Conference schedule
The senior Year Cycle and how to talk
with families.
Types of Aid, Cost of Attendance,
Understanding AL
Working with Foster Youth, Teen
Parents, risk of homeless
Resources for Dreamers
Resources for Scholarship and Literacy
Overview of Federal Aid,
Sector Meetings – Anna Batie for HS students, cover best practices, how to talk with families.
The senior Year Cycle.
WAFSA presentation
Steven Thornhill update – for the conference session? Anything we think we may need to know. .
Resource page of FSA toolkit, FAFSA demo site, FAFSA forecaster. List of resources,
There is also the WSCA conference - March 2 – 4 in Seattle at double tree again, will need to make proposal for that again
and when the proposal is due. John will check on dates again
Make sure membership is up to date.
Schedule go to meeting in February and May, and make sure website is updated with current members. Will send out action
plans and notes.
Ron – proposed a training based on NASFAA training model that includes an online test like so that the trainee can become
credentialed so that people start to feel more comfortable with FSA nights and also then they will be better able to help with
the 12th year campaigns. Something to look into to see if there is a cost, but then also we can look into this to see about
helping to create interactive modules.
agenda