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

Nationwide "Paying for College" Bus Tour Addresses College Awareness Gap for Latino Families

The Sallie Mae Fund's Tour is largest of its kind, visiting 36 West Coast cities during financial aid season; Partnerships with MTV Tr3́s, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, and the Hispanic Scholarship Fund highlight importance of higher education for Latinos

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 8, 2007—As part of its popular "Paying for College" Bus Tour, The Sallie Mae Fund will bring its message that college is possible to 36 communities this spring. Launched today in San Francisco alongside national media partner MTV Tr3́s, the Tour is in its third year of educating families about their options for attending, paying, and saving for higher education.

For the California cities on the Tour, The Sallie Mae Fund, in partnership with the University of Southern California School of Policy, Planning and Development's Tomás Rivera Policy Institute, the Walt Disney Company, and Southern California Edison, is proud to introduce a valuable free resource for students—the Latino College Dollars scholarship directory. This up-to-date scholarship guide features hundreds of scholarships available to California Latino students and is available without registration at www.latinocollegedollars.org. In addition to scholarships, free and inexpensive money is available to California students from the federal and state governments. The deadline for college-bound students in California to complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), the form required for students to be eligible for this assistance, is March 2, 2007.

Today's launch was held at San Francisco's Mission High School, and featured Guido Minaya, vice president of programs, and Molly Vitorte, national director of outreach and alliances at the Hispanic Scholarship Fund, a national leader in support of programs and scholarships to help increase Hispanic access to higher education. Other national Tour partners include the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute (CHCI), the nation's premier Hispanic youth leadership development and educational organization, the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC), and the National Council for Community and Education Partnerships (NCCEP).

"The number of Hispanic students enrolled in higher education continues to grow, and so does the need to have access to critical financial aid information that affords Hispanic families a college education," said Esther Aguilera, president and CEO of CHCI.

The "Paying for College" Bus Tour is rooted in research from The Sallie Mae Fund, a charitable organization sponsored by Sallie Mae and dedicated to college access, pointing to the lack of access to financial aid information as a key obstacle for Latino families. 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. This year's Tour features a partnership with MTV Tr3́s and its Voces (Voices) initiative, the largest online community created to empower Latinos to get the most out of their education, prepare for high school graduation and explore their higher education options. Voces partners with Youth Venture, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and National Council of La Raza (NCLR) to highlight education dreams and obstacles of Hispanic teens in their own words. Through contests at Bus Tour events around the country and online, MTV Tr3́s will choose dozens of student videographers and provide them with video cameras to provide a platform for young Latinos to express their stories, ideas, inspirations, and fears about their high school education. Select stories will be featured online at www.mtv3voces.com, and some may also be featured on the MTV Tr3́s television network.

"MTV Tr3́s is proud to partner with The Sallie Mae Fund to help Latino youth express their education voz," said Lucia Ballas-Trayor, senior vice president and general manager of MTV Tr3́s. "Through the collective efforts of the 'Paying for College' Bus Tour and our own MTV Tr3́s Voces campaign, Latino youth will be empowered to get the most out of their education, prepare for high school graduation, explore college options, and effect changes in their communities." Despite the explosive Latino population growth predicted in the United States, Hispanics are still underrepresented when it comes to enrolling in and completing higher education. The nation's largest ethnic minority, Latinos face unique challenges when it comes to planning and paying for college. Latino parents and students, often the first in their families to contemplate a higher education, may be unfamiliar with the college admissions and financial aid processes. In addition, immigrant students without a Social Security number find themselves ineligible for most federal financial aid programs.

In California, the graduating class of 2008–09 is projected to be the largest in the state's history, with some 3.2 million students. However, the gaps between the education attainment levels of whites and Hispanics/Latinos, the largest minority group in California, are substantial. Figures show, among working-age adults, about 52% of Hispanics/Latinos do not have a high school credential, compared to 8% of whites. At the other end of the spectrum, only 12% of working-age Hispanics and Latinos have a college degree, compared with 46% of working-age whites.

The "Paying for College" Bus 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. Workshops are presented by national spokesperson, Lilyan Prado, a 27-year-old Guatemalan native and Texas teacher who worked from the age of 11 to help support her family and overcame many obstacles to stay in school and graduate from college. Since 2004, Tours reached more than 75,000 students and parents, conducted nearly 470 "Paying for College" workshops and awarded roughly $280,000 in college scholarships. After attending a Sallie Mae Fund "Paying for College" workshop in 2005, 80% of students and parents said that they would be able to pay for college, as opposed to only 31% before to attending the workshop.

"Information shapes a family's decision about college," said Kathleen deLaski, president of The Sallie Mae Fund. "Too many people are surprised to learn that federal aid, state aid and scholarships are available to all families. We attempt to bridge the information gap for any student who dreams of college."

"There is a critical need for reliable and trustworthy information by the Latino parents and Latino youth on college admissions and finance," said Harry Pachon, president of the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute at the University of Southern California's School of Policy, Planning and Development. "TRPI commends The Sallie Mae Fund for initiating these projects."

In addition to the workshops and scholarships that will be provided through the Tour, The Sallie Mae Fund is deeply invested in college access initiatives across the state of California, including its recently announced $1 million college access initiative. Since 2001, The Sallie Mae Fund awarded nearly $1.4 million in grants to charitable organizations in California. In that same period, students attending California colleges and universities received more than $1.2 million in scholarships through Sallie Mae Fund programs. In addition, Sallie Mae's employees led efforts to bring an additional $570,000 to the state through the company's Matching Gifts and Dollars for Doers programs. For a list of Tour stops and additional details including more stops in the Bay Area, visit www.salliemaefund.org.

The Sallie Mae Fund, a charitable organization sponsored by Sallie Mae, achieves its mission—to increase access to a postsecondary 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.