Welcome to the FSA Partner Spotlight! Our partners are using innovative programs, creative events, and effective initiatives to help facilitate financial aid awareness, increase Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA®) completion, and assist borrowers with repayment. Each month, we will showcase and celebrate the best practices of our partners who serve specific demographic communities.
This page is not an endorsement of any particular district, school, or organization, but simply a space to share the outreach efforts of various entities. If you are interested in being featured in the FSA Partner Spotlight, please complete the FSA Partner Spotlight Interest Form. Learn about our monthly partner spotlight and how your organization may be considered for a feature.
myFutureNC
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myFutureNC
myFutureNC is a statewide nonprofit organization that promotes a shared vision for an education-through-workforce continuum—from early childhood through adulthood—across North Carolina and aligns and coordinates local, regional, and state actions that will dramatically increase attainment of valuable credentials and postsecondary degrees. myFutureNC builds on the work of a multi-year collective initiative through the myFutureNC Commission to establish the official launch of North Carolina's postsecondary attainment goal adopted by the NC General Assembly. This state attainment goal seeks to build a more equitable and prosperous North Carolina with 2 million North Carolinians ages 25–44 holding a high-quality credential or postsecondary degree by 2030. To achieve this ambitious goal, myFutureNC was established in 2019 to move the attainment goal into action by working across business, education, and workforce sectors statewide and in local communities to
- close gaps in postsecondary attainment,
- promote alignment between educational programming and business industry needs, and
- improve the quality of educational opportunities for all.
What are the FAFSA® completion goals and accomplishments of myFutureNC?
To address the need for supporting FAFSA completion as a lever to boost postsecondary enrollment to achieve NC's attainment goal, myFutureNC collaborated with partners to implement a comprehensive suite of FAFSA completion activities. These activities aligned to promising strategies recommended in the Education Strategy Group's 2020 report, Fast Track: FAFSA Completion. An accomplishment includes establishing a statewide 80% FAFSA completion goal by 2030. It was tied to existing initiatives to create momentum and communicated in the myFutureNC statewide and local county attainment profiles.
Another accomplishment includes using data to target supports and transparently report progress. myFutureNC developed a public-facing visual data dashboard, the NC First in FAFSA Tracker, that allows comparisons by schools. It also allows the user to view district and county-level FAFSA submission and completion data directly from Federal Student Aid data and high school senior counts from NC Department of Public Instruction (myfuturenc.org/ourwork/first-in-fafsa). Data from the Tracker was compiled into a monthly leaderboard to recognize schools and districts for highest completion rates and growth by category.
myFutureNC also supported the NC State Education Assistance Authority to increase the number of school practitioners who have protected access to the Finish the FAFSA tool, which connects student-level data from K-12 data systems to Federal Student Aid's FAFSA completion data. Currently, 97% of North Carolina public high schools have access to Finish the FAFSA tool.
What tools, resources, and/or collaborations contribute to myFutureNC's success?
The 2020–21 FAFSA Campaign was a coordinated effort across the state to boost FAFSA completion rates by working collectively towards a common goal. Partners included Carolina Demography, College Foundation of North Carolina (CFNC), NC State Education Assistance Authority (NCSEAA), NC College Advising Corps, and The Hunt Institute. A component of this statewide campaign was the NC First in FAFSA Challenge, a "healthy competition" to incentivize schools to register as part of the statewide challenge and be recognized for achieving FAFSA completion growth and implementing innovative practices. Additionally, as an incentive for students who completed the FAFSA form during May, myFutureNC gave away $2,000 in gift cards directly to students in the #CashforCollege Giveaway.
myFutureNC also developed a data-driven and targeted approach to engage, train, and create a community of practice for practitioners in 42 priority districts. These FAFSA priority districts participated in monthly webinars and were selected due to FAFSA completion identified as an opportunity for growth on their myFutureNC county attainment profile, their district's FAFSA completion rate as of August 2020, or because of the size of the district (the state's three largest school districts were included). To support counselors and college access professionals, myFutureNC developed and disseminated FAFSA completion resources, including the Step-by-Step Toolkit, Mythbusters Guide, social media toolkit, and Peer Into Your Future, a first-generation storytelling series with a virtual panel and videos. Resources were distributed via the NC First in FAFSA website, playlist, and e-newsletters. To reach a wide audience of practitioners and leaders across schools, districts, higher education, and the community, dissemination partners included the NC Department of Public Instruction, NC Principals and Assistant Principals Association, NC Superintendents Association, NC Community College System, LatinxEd, and the NC Hispanic Professionals Society, community foundations, faith-based organizations, and the NC Chamber and Rural Center. Through a collaborative effort, myFutureNC launched 20 FAFSA Drive Into Your Future events at community colleges across the state throughout April 2021 in partnership with CFNC, GEAR UP NC, and the NC Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. Students and families attended these distanced in-person or online FAFSA completion events at college campuses with bilingual support available. myFutureNC provided Latinx and Spanish-language outreach by partnering with the statewide nonprofit organization, LatinxEd, to offer free, virtual FAFSA assistance to Latinx students, their families, and their counselors, including bilingual coaches from the College y Consejos program.
What challenges do the myFutureNC community face in financial aid awareness and FAFSA® completion?
Across North Carolina and its most underserved populations, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has had a tremendous effect on all aspects of life, including applying to college and submitting a FAFSA application. Consistent with trends across the United States, North Carolina experienced a decline in college enrollment and FAFSA completion rates during the pandemic. Counselors and college access professionals across North Carolina continue to work extra hard to reach students and their families. During the pandemic, counselors have been asked to adapt to the changing learning environment, respond to students' social, emotional, and physical needs, and more. Similar to many statewide and local organizations, myFutureNC found that with so many competing priorities, it can be challenging to get the message across and engage professionals. Similarly, counselors have expressed the challenges they face in not being able to plan proactively with the changing nature of their schools and communities. Because of the timing of FAFSA submission and completion data available, the NC First in FAFSA Tracker does not provide real-time data which would allow for a timelier publicly available tracking progress towards the state's FAFSA completion goal. As a result, myFutureNC guides school personnel to establish a data-sharing agreement and use the Finish the FAFSA tool, which includes protected access to more timely data at the student level for FAFSA submission and completions. However, district, school, and community leaders do not have access to the private data and rely on publicly available aggregated data on the NC First in FAFSA Tracker. Data available on the NC First in FAFSA Tracker may not include all high school seniors from early college high schools or seniors who have already taken college courses based on how students answer a question on the FAFSA application. As a result, the FAFSA completion rates on the NC First in FAFSA Tracker may not depict a truly accurate rate for high school seniors. Additionally, the statewide delay in releasing the 2020–21 NC high school graduation data has led to a delay in finalizing FAFSA completion rates in the NC First in FAFSA Tracker.
NC First in FAFSA Drive In
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