{"id":77253,"date":"2018-04-08T08:00:46","date_gmt":"2018-04-08T18:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=77253"},"modified":"2019-03-20T13:34:00","modified_gmt":"2019-03-20T23:34:00","slug":"molokai-mckinley-fafsa-cash-for-college","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2018\/04\/08\/molokai-mckinley-fafsa-cash-for-college\/","title":{"rendered":"Moloka\u02bbi and Mckinley High Schools win <abbr title=\"Free Application for Federal Student Aid\">FAFSA<\/abbr> \u201cCash for College\u201d Challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 3<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><div class=\"responsive-video-wrap\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"676\" height=\"380\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4ctyExtetnI?rel=0\" title=\"YouTube video player\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p><span aria-label=\"Molokai\">Moloka&#699;i<\/span> and McKinley High Schools won first place for having the highest percentage of students complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (<abbr>FAFSA<\/abbr>) in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.p20hawaii.org\/\"><span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> P&#8211;20<\/a>\u2019s Cash for College Challenge. A total of 73 percent of students in the senior class at <span aria-label=\"Molokai\">Moloka&#699;i<\/span> High School and 63 percent at McKinley High School completed the <abbr>FAFSA<\/abbr>.The application, which helps students and families identify their financial aid eligibility,  is required if applying for federal student grants, work-study or loans.<\/p>\n<p>Of the remaining schools, &#699;Aiea and Kohala High Schools were recognized for increasing the percentage of <abbr>FAFSA<\/abbr> completions over the previous year.<\/p>\n<p><span aria-label=\"Molokai\">Moloka&#699;i<\/span> High School had the highest percentage of seniors completing the <abbr>FAFSA<\/abbr> among all participating schools, which is currently the highest in the state and 23 percentage points over the statewide average. The school also increased their <abbr>FAFSA<\/abbr> completions by 14.5 percentage points over last year.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;One of the strategies that worked best for us is the individual follow up we were able to do with our students,&rdquo; says Mahina Kamakana-Juario, <span aria-label=\"Molokai\">Moloka&#699;i<\/span> High School college and career counselor. &ldquo;I think we may have pestered them a bit too much reminding them everyday to complete the <abbr>FAFSA<\/abbr>, but that&#8217;s what it took to get the results we did.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<h2><abbr>FAFSA<\/abbr>, college enrollment and completion<\/h2>\n<p><abbr>FAFSA<\/abbr> completion is strongly associated with postsecondary enrollment. According to a recent study, 90 percent of high school seniors who complete the <abbr>FAFSA<\/abbr> attend college directly from high school, compared to just 55 percent of students who do not complete the <abbr>FAFSA<\/abbr>. Also, <abbr>FAFSA<\/abbr> completion is strongly associated with college completion: 52 percent of <abbr>FAFSA<\/abbr> filers complete a bachelor\u2019s degree within six years of enrollment, compared to just 44 percent of students who do not complete it.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Each year, millions of free federal grants dollars are left unclaimed in <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>,&rdquo; says <strong>Stephen Schatz<\/strong>, <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> P&#8211;20 executive director. &ldquo;This aid could have helped more of our <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>\u2019s students attend college including the University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>. We need to do everything we can to help make college more affordable for students and families and helping them complete the <abbr>FAFSA<\/abbr> is one way to do this.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;A postsecondary degree or certificate is the great equalizer,&rdquo; says Alex Harris, Harold K.L. Castle Foundation strategic advisor. &ldquo;Financial cost can be a major barrier, but this doesn\u2019t have to be the case. Students win when high schools make the financial aid process easier. The Harold K.L. Castle Foundation commends the winners of the Cash for College Challenge for taking this important step towards helping so many become college graduates.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>This year, fifteen schools participated in the Cash for College challenge, which is supported by the Harold K.L. Castle Foundation. Schools with the highest <abbr>FAFSA<\/abbr> completion rates as well as the largest increase in <abbr>FAFSA<\/abbr> completions over the previous year were awarded cash prizes ranging from $1000 to $1200 that could be used to support senior class activities such as high school graduation, prom and end-of-year events.<\/p>\n<h2>Schools awarded<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Closest to 100 percent <abbr>FAFSA<\/abbr> Completion<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span aria-label=\"Molokai\">Moloka&#699;i<\/span> High School: 73 percent<\/li>\n<li>McKinley High School: 63 percent<\/li>\n<li>Kailua High School: 57 percent<\/li>\n<li>&#699;Aiea High School: 55 percent<\/li>\n<li>Leilehua High School: 53 percent<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Greatest Increase in <abbr>FAFSA<\/abbr> Completion from 2017<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span aria-label=\"Molokai\">Moloka&#699;i<\/span> High School: +14.5 percentage points<\/li>\n<li>&#699;Aiea High School: +9.2 percentage points<\/li>\n<li>McKinley High School: +8.1 percentage points<\/li>\n<li>Kohala High School: +7 percentage points<\/li>\n<li><span aria-label=\"Waianae\">Wai&#699;anae<\/span> High School: +4.6 percentage points<\/li>\n<li>N\u0101n\u0101kuli High and Intermediate: +2.2 percentage points<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This is the second year of the Cash for College challenge. The contest was open to all <a href=\"http:\/\/gearup.hawaii.edu\/\">GEAR UP<\/a> eligible high schools (schools with a 50 percent or higher, free or reduced lunch status) statewide. Results are based on data from Federal Student Aid as of March 17, 2018.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/system-p-20-molokai-fafsa.jpg\" alt=\"Molokai High School Home of the Farmers sign\" width=\"676\" height=\"381\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-77247\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/system-p-20-molokai-fafsa.jpg 676w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/system-p-20-molokai-fafsa-300x169.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 676px) 100vw, 676px\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><span aria-label=\"Molokai\">Moloka&#699;i<\/span> and McKinley High Schools had the highest percentage of students complete the <abbr>FAFSA<\/abbr> in <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> P&#8211;20\u2019s Cash for College Challenge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,12],"tags":[678,477,306,947,56],"class_list":["post-77253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-video","tag-financial-aid","tag-gear-up","tag-hawaii-p-20","tag-uh-system","tag-video-2","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77253"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77253\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93125,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77253\/revisions\/93125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}