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Students at a Paying for College Bus Tour stop, Reading PA

Changing U.S. demographic creates critical need for more Latinos to pursue higher education

The Sallie Mae Fund launches largest-ever nationwide Latino bus tour on college financial aid options

RESTON, Va., July 27, 2005—The Sallie Mae Fund's Paying For College Bus Tour, launched today in Chicago, will travel to 78 cities nationwide to respond to a critical need: educating Latinos about options for attending and paying for higher education. According to last month's U.S. Census Bureau report, Latinos are the country's fastest growing population, and increasing at a more rapid rate than previously projected.

Based on the Census report, one in seven Americans is of Latino descent, and that number is expected to rise to one in four by 2050. Yet, this population, growing at a rate three times faster than any other demographic, is lagging behind Caucasians and African Americans in higher education enrollment and graduation.

"So many of our families are not capitalizing on higher education, because they believe that college cannot be attained due to financial restrictions," said Harry Pachon, president of the Tomás Rivera Policy Institute at the University of Southern California. "With the ongoing Latino population explosion and the effect this growth is having on our country's workforce, this cannot just be a Latino issue, it's an American issue. That's why providing financial aid information to Latino families, through initiatives like The Sallie Mae Fund's bus tour, is critical to shaping America's future generations."

The Sallie Mae Fund commissioned the largest-ever survey of Latino perspectives on college financial aid and discovered a missing link that fuels the education gap; lack of access to financial aid information among Latinos. The study found that more than half of Latino parents and 43% of Latino young adults could not name a single source of financial aid, yet 75% of Latino youth currently not enrolled in college indicated that they would have been more likely to attend college if they had better information on financial aid.

"The Sallie Mae Fund wants to help reverse this situation by raising awareness among the Latino community that a college education is attainable and valuable," said Kathleen deLaski, president of The Sallie Mae Fund. "Based on the demand during last year's smaller Paying For College Tour, The Sallie Mae Fund has more than tripled the reach of the tour and enhanced its resources to help further bridge the financial aid information gap in the Latino community."

The 78-city tour offers Latino communities access to free, hands-on resources and information on, scholarships, grants, and federal financial aid in both English and Spanish through workshops in the community and college counseling inside the tour vehicle. The National Association for College Admission Counseling, the National Council for Community and Education Partnerships, and the National College Access Network have signed on as the tour's national partners to help supplement outreach. MTV/MTV Español will be the exclusive national media partner, providing video programming for the on-board college counseling center that will also air on both networks as a part of the new think MTV pro-social campaign on education. For further details and tour stop schedules, visit www.thesalliemaefund.org.

The Sallie Mae Fund, a charitable organization sponsored by Sallie Mae, achieves its mission—to increase access to a post-secondary education for America's students—by supporting programs and initiatives that help open doors to higher education, prepare families for their investment, and bridge the gap when no one else can. For more information visit www.salliemaefund.org.