by Chanel L. Donaldson | Jan 17, 2020 | News1
In our ongoing effort to expand access to dual enrollment, NCLC has arranged a free opportunity for approximately 90 Newark high school students to take classes at Rutgers University-Newark in the spring semester. Dual enrollment is a pre-college preparation strategy that allows high school students to take credit-bearing college courses. Students from all of Newark’s public high schools, Great Oaks Legacy Charter School, St. Benedict’s Prep, the Opportunity Youth Network (OYN), and People’s Prep attended orientation on campus on Friday, January 10 and Tuesday, January 14, 2020. The 11th and 12th graders gathered in Ackerson Hall to prepare for their upcoming classes at the School of Arts and Sciences-Newark (SASN) and the School of Public Affairs and Administration (SPAA). Students also got a personal tour of the campus and each received new RU-N IDs. An additional orientation was held in the evening on Thursday, January 16, 2020 at Central High School to give parents the opportunity to learn more and ask questions about the dual enrollment initiative. High school students will begin classes alongside Rutgers undergraduates on Tuesday, January 21, 2020.
We are grateful to all of our colleagues who have made this possible, specifically: our champion of the dual enrollment initiative at Rutgers University-Newark, Sherri-Ann Butterfield, Executive Vice Chancellor; our SASN colleagues, Sofia Pinto-Figueroa, Associate Dean of Undergraduate Education and Dean of Academic Services and Katherine Lopez, Assistant Dean for Academic Integrity and General Advisement; our SPAA colleague, Aaron Gibbs, Associate Dean of Student and Academic Services; and all of the staff at the Office of Summer and Winter Sessions. A special thanks to our colleagues at the Newark Board of Education, specifically Mario Santos, Assistant Superintendent for High Schools, Liana Summey, Special Assistant for High Schools, and Vernon Pullins, Supervisor of Guidance at the Office of Student Life. Special thanks also to Didier Jean-Baptiste, Dean of Seniors and College Placement at St. Benedict’s; Monet Kendall-Turner, Director of College Counseling and Jared Taillefer, CEO at Great Oaks; Tahirah Jordan Crawford, Director of College Placement at People’s Prep; and Rana Hamed, Graduate and Career Pathways Manager and Mark Comesañas, Executive Director of Program and Instruction at OYN.
by Chanel L. Donaldson | Nov 26, 2019 | Partner Highlights
Newark Public High School students got a special treat on Saturday, November 23, 2019 when they were invited to watch Seton Hall University’s men’s basketball team take on Florida A&M University at the Prudential Center. As a part of Seton Hall’s Newark Day, about 40 Newark high schoolers were treated to a box seat experience in the arena, as well as an opportunity to meet with Seton Hall admissions representatives and learn more about the University. Seton Hall’s Interim Provost and Executive Vice President, Karen Boroff, Ph.D. sat and talked with students as they cheered on the Pirates, who got a win over the Rattlers.
by Chanel L. Donaldson | Nov 18, 2019 | Partner Highlights
Pictured: Associate Provost for Undergraduate Education and Dean of University College David S. Hood and Assistant Provost for Student Success Danielle Insalaco-Egan
Montclair State University will redesign and strengthen its network of support services to give students a more efficient path to a degree, thanks to a federal grant from the U.S. Department of Education.
The five-year, $2,227,640 award will be used to fund the University-wide initiative “Advising 2025: Creating a Coordinated Care Network for Student Success.” The funding is provided through the Department of Education’s Title III Part A Programs – Strengthening Institutions, which helps eligible institutions expand their ability to serve low-income students by providing funds to strengthen academic quality, institutional management and fiscal stability.
Advising 2025’s three activity areas – creating student success centers, strengthening Montclair State’s new student seminar and providing professional development – will allow the University to develop a coordinated care network that enhances communication among faculty, academic advisors, career counselors, mentoring and tutors to transform its student support system. The overarching goal will be increasing the number of students who persist to complete a bachelor’s degree at Montclair State University.
“The success of our students is the unifying mission of Montclair State University,” says Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Willard Gingerich. “This grant will allow Montclair State to further motivate student intellectual development and catch at-risk students before they fail, enabling us fully to live up to the hallmark ‘small college’ feel that has made this large University the institution of choice for generations of New Jersey families.”
The funding will allow the University to make a sweeping impact. Student Success Centers will be created and housed in each of Montclair State University’s undergraduate colleges and schools, enhancing the institution’s advising model and providing highly personalized and proactive attention to students across the University.
Montclair State’s new student seminar will also be revamped and will include new peer mentoring and financial literacy programming designed to both ease the transition to college and deliver critical financial skills for the rest of a student’s life. These initiatives will be supported by comprehensive professional development programming for faculty and staff, new staff positions and technological upgrades that provide the necessary tools to facilitate the plan.
Montclair State has already invested in the redesigned coordinated care network through the launch of Navigate, an online student success platform designed to help faculty and support areas engage with students more efficiently, for the fall 2019 semester. The platform’s predictive analytics will strengthen the University’s ability to provide targeted interventions for students and more effectively focus resources.
“This funding will allow the University to continue to advance the student success agenda outlined in its new strategic plan,” says Associate Provost for Undergraduate Education and Dean of University College David S. Hood. “Through this grant award, we will build upon recent academic innovations at Montclair State University, such as the creation of University College. This funding is becoming increasingly critical to institutions as they work to ensure more students obtain degrees in the most efficient, timely manner possible, so we are fortunate to have received this award so we can help heed the State of New Jersey’s calls to action outlined in its strategic plan for higher education.”
This article was originally published here.
by Chanel L. Donaldson | Oct 31, 2019 | News1
Citywide Effort Pushes for 70 Percent FAFSA Completion Rate
(Newark, NJ) — Today, Newark officially launched its first effort to increase the percentage of Newark high school seniors who complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).
Mayor Ras J. Baraka and city leaders Reginald Lewis, Executive Director of the Newark City of Learning Collaborative; Catherine Wilson, President and CEO of the United Way of Greater Newark; and Jeffrey Trzeciak, Director of the Newark Public Library; held a press conference at Newark City Hall on Thur., Oct. 31, to unveil the Newark FAFSA Challenge. The Newark FAFSA Challenge is a citywide initiative that aims to increase the city’s FAFSA completion rate to 70 percent by June 2020, a 10-percentage point increase over the June 2019 rate of 60 percent.
“We want every single one of our graduating seniors to have the greatest opportunities imaginable to advance their education and achieve their goals in life, whether they are in the arts, sciences, business, the law, medicine, engineering, and public service. The costs of achieving these dreams and goals have risen vastly, and we as a city and caring community must do everything in our power to enable our youth to achieve them. These young men and women of today are the future leaders of tomorrow, and how we create a more educated city today will create a more empowered, safer, equitable, and collaborative city,” said Mayor Baraka.
Nationally, 90 percent of high school seniors who complete the FAFSA will immediately enroll in college, a key predictor of eventual college completion. The FAFSA and, by extension, financial readiness for college are important aspects of the transition for prospective college students.
Despite its importance for college preparation, the FAFSA remains a significant hurdle for low-income students in particular. Low-income students are less likely to complete the FAFSA for a variety of reasons, including “verification melt.” Verification melt refers to low-income students disproportionately being required to verify their family’s income (an estimated 50 percent of low-income students compared to 30 percent of students overall). As a result, 22 percent of those students never complete the FAFSA.
“The Newark FAFSA Challenge has the potential to generate over $3 million more in state and federal grant money for Newark’s graduating high school class of 2020,” said Reginald Lewis, Executive Director of the Newark City of Learning Collaborative. “With all of Newark coming together for the first time to support our students and families with completing the FAFSA, so many more of our young people will have the resources to pay for college.”
Newark now joins a host of locales around the country who lead their own FAFSA Challenges, including Detroit, Baltimore, and the state of Florida.
The Newark FAFSA Challenge’s signature sponsors are the Newark City of Learning Collaborative, the United Way of Greater Newark, and the Newark Public Library. Additional partners supporting the effort include the Mayor’s Office, the Newark Board of Education, the Essex County Schools of Technology, and several local colleges and community organizations.
“The Newark Public Library is a proud partner with the Newark City of Learning Collaborative and United Way of Greater Newark. We are pleased to be working together to simplify processes and make it easier for Newarkers to be able to get into college,” said Jeffrey Trzeciak, Director of the Newark Public Library.
A key feature of the Newark FAFSA Challenge is its promise to offer personal assistance to high school seniors and their parents to complete the complex application. Nine designated hubs are located in each Newark ward where trained volunteers will offer personal FAFSA completion assistance through June 2020. The hubs also house kiosks with financial aid information.
“United Way of Greater Newark has worked to recruit and train volunteers to help families through the FAFSA process. With a mission to disrupt poverty, we believe college is a pathway towards a bright future and recognize the FAFSA process can be complicated,” said Catherine Wilson, President and CEO of the United Way of Greater Newark. “The efforts of our experts and volunteers have made this process both easier and less cumbersome for families, helping students gain much needed financial aid towards the completion of their degree.”
For more information about the Newark FAFSA Challenge, the list of designated hubs, and dates of FAFSA completion events, visit newarknclc.org/NewarkFAFSAChallenge.
by Chanel L. Donaldson | Oct 23, 2019 | News1
PRESS CONFERENCE: NEWARK FAFSA CHALLENGE
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2019 AT 11:30 AM, CITY HALL, 920 BROAD STREET
Join Mayor Ras Baraka, the Newark City of Learning Collaborative (NCLC), the United Way of Greater Newark, and the Newark Public Library on Thursday, October 31, 2019 at 11:30 am at Newark City Hall for the launch of the Newark FAFSA Challenge. School leaders, educators, parents, and policymakers are invited to learn about the citywide effort to increase Newark’s FAFSA completion rate. The press conference will feature remarks from Mayor Ras Baraka; NCLC Executive Director, Reginald Lewis; United Way of Greater Newark President and CEO, Catherine Wilson; and Newark Public Library Director, Jeffrey Trzeciak.
About the Newark FAFSA Challenge
The Newark FAFSA Challenge is a citywide effort to encourage more Newark high school seniors to complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). For the 2018-2019 academic year, only about 60% of Newark high school seniors completed the FAFSA by June 2019. Our goal for the 2019-2020 academic year is to increase Newark’s FAFSA completion rate to 70% by June 2020. The FAFSA Challenge is co-sponsored by NCLC, the Newark Public Library, and the United Way of Greater Newark. Additional partners will maintain designated hubs in every Newark ward to offer personal assistance to high school seniors and their parents.
