Sahara Locke
Published: February 22, 2006
For the first time since, well, possibly ever, students willingly came to school on a weekend. The reason for the momentous occasion? It wasn’t a football game, or basketball game; it actually was an opportunity for those students to learn something outside of a classroom setting.
For the first time in the event’s 12-year history, College Goal Sunday made a pit stop in Escambia County. The result: an impressive influx of more than 125 students and families and 81 volunteers who made the event possible.
The purpose of College Goal Sunday, according to Virginia Santoni, one of the event’s coordinators, is to “break down the barrier of the paper process for filing for financial aid.”
The event got its start in Indiana in 1989 as a way to inform students and families that there is a door to a source of financial aid that can be unlocked with the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA. The event quickly blossomed into a nationwide effort whose purpose was to make the paperwork “less intimidating,” Santoni said.
Because the sight of paperwork alone is enough to send anybody’s nerves into a tail spin, many students, primarily low-income students, never tap in to the keys of financial aid. Often just the thought of going to college becomes daunting when the question is raised, “How am I going to pay for this?”
Volunteers flew in from other areas of Florida to help with the event along with local businesses such as Virginia College, Amsouth Bank, United Way and Suntrust. Karen Kessler and Laurie Carmean, from PJC’s financial aid and veterans’ affairs office, also helped the FAFSA machine to run smoothly by not only giving information on how to fill out the paperwork, but also helping attendees fill it out.
Because the event is nationwide, a student could come to Pensacola and fill out the FAFSA form in hopes of attending a college in Alabama, or Mississippi, or New York even. In fact, some students did come from neighboring states to attend the event.
The college has committed to hosting the event for two more years, according to Santoni.
“We think the event went quite well,” she said. “From the surveys we received, people were quite pleased. We more than met our goals for the event.”