Finacial Aid & Scholarships - 2 hour workshop
FINANCIAL AID & SCHOLARSHIPS
Understand Your Options. Find Your Funding. Plan Your Future.
Grade Level: 9-12 | Format: Interactive Workshop | Duration: 2 Hours
WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION
Learn how to make college and career training more affordable. This interactive two-hour workshop helps high school students explore financial aid options, understand FAFSA and TASFA, search for scholarships, and learn how to compare financial aid offers.
Through hands-on activities, scholarship research, real-world examples, and personalized planning, students will learn to identify legitimate funding opportunities, recognize scholarship scams, understand the differences between grants, scholarships, work-study, and loans, and organize the steps needed to pursue financial assistance. Students will leave with practical resources and a personalized action plan to help fund their educational goals.
Workshop duration: 2 hours
WORKSHOP STRUCTURE
- Financial Aid Myth or Fact Challenge common misconceptions about college costs, financial aid, and paying for education through an interactive opening activity.
- Understanding Your Financial Aid Options
Explore grants, scholarships, work-study, and student loans, including which types of financial aid generally require repayment. - FAFSA & TASFA: Know Which Path to Explore
Understand the purpose of FAFSA and TASFA, learn about information students may need, and identify official resources for application guidance. - Scholarship Search Challenge
Explore scholarship search resources, evaluate eligibility requirements, identify application deadlines, and practice finding opportunities that match individual interests and qualifications. - Avoid Scholarship Scams
Learn to recognize warning signs, evaluate suspicious offers, protect personal information, and find legitimate scholarship opportunities. - Understanding Financial Aid Offers
Practice comparing sample financial aid offers and distinguishing grants and scholarships from work-study and student loans. - Build Your Financial Aid Action Plan
Create a personalized checklist of applications, scholarship opportunities, required documents, deadlines, and next steps toward funding education.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
By the end of this workshop, students will be able to:
Identify at least three types of financial aid and explain basic differences between them.
Distinguish between FAFSA and TASFA and identify official resources for determining which application to explore.
Locate scholarship search resources and evaluate opportunities based on eligibility requirements and deadlines.
Recognize common warning signs of scholarship scams and identify ways to protect personal information.
Compare sample financial aid offers by distinguishing between gift aid, work-study, and loans.
Develop a personalized financial aid action plan that includes funding opportunities, application steps, and deadlines to verify.