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Session Title: Who Needs a College Goal Sunday? Using Evaluation to Expand and Improve a Large-scale Financial Aid Awareness Program
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Panel Session 530 to be held in Hanover Suite B on Friday, November 9, 9:25 AM to 10:10 AM
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Sponsored by the College Access Programs TIG
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| Chair(s): |
| Wendy Erisman,
Institute for Higher Education Policy,
werisman@ihep.org
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| Abstract:
While many college access programs work with one or more cohorts of students over an extended period of time, others take the approach of holding one-time workshops for large numbers of students in order to pass along crucial information about the college admissions and financial aid process. This limited contact with students and their families, combined with the extensive use of volunteers to provide program content, makes it challenging to assess the effectiveness of such programs. College Goal Sunday, which offers one-day financial aid workshops for low-income, minority, and first-generation college students at more than 630 sites in 33 states, has worked over the past three years to develop an evaluation model that addresses these challenges. The findings from this evaluation have been used increase participation by the program's target audience while also building a stronger and more engaged volunteer base.
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The Challenges of Evaluating an Annual One-day Multi-site Financial Aid Awareness Event
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| Wendy Erisman,
Institute for Higher Education Policy,
werisman@ihep.org
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Wendy Erisman is Senior Research Analyst and Director of Evaluation at the Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP) in Washington, DC. She received her Ph.D. in cultural anthropology from the University of Texas at Austin, where her research focused on organizational cultures. Prior to her appointment with the Institute, she was a member of the faculty at Duke University in Durham, NC, and St. Edward's University in Austin, TX. Dr. Erisman currently manages several major projects for IHEP, including a nationwide evaluation of the College Goal Sunday financial aid access program and an evaluation of the USA Funds Access to Education scholarship program. She is also project director for the Institute's new role as manager of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's research and evaluation program on its two major scholarship initiatives.
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College Access Marketing: Putting Evaluation Data Into Action
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| Marcia Weston,
National Association of Student Financial Aid Adminstrators,
westonm@nasfaa.org
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Marcia Weston is Director of College Goal Sunday Operations for the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA). She is responsible for overall management of the College Goal Sunday program at the national level, with emphasis on program maintenance and expansion, fundraising, public relations, and reporting. Since starting this position in 2004, she has overseen the expansion of the College Goal Sunday program to 33 states and the District of Columbia. Ms. Weston came to NASFAA from the Finance Authority of Maine, where she served as manager of education outreach programs since 1998. She wrote Maine's successful College Goal Sunday grant proposal and served as statewide coordinator for the program.
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