WHS Earns a Spot on State’s “School Spotlight” for the FAFSA ID Challenge
Watertown, CT - February 1, 2024 - On January 24, 2024 Watertown High School earned a spot on the State Department of Education’s monthly newsletter as one of several school districts in CT who earned a spot in the State’s FAFSA Challenge. FAFSA stands for Free Application for Federal Student Aid and is an important piece for graduating high school seniors as they prepare to apply to colleges and universities. Perhaps it’s been an age old adage that parents and students alike share the daunting task of navigating things like the Financial Aid process offered by the Federal government.
Knowing this, Watertown High School is one of many schools who is working eagerly to make the process of applying easier. Being selected to be part of the FAFSA challenge helps, ‘Dispel common myths’ of the process so both families and students have a ‘smoother financial aid journey’.
Under the leadership of Ms. Kristen Bates, School Counselor at WHS who is heading up the FAFSA grant, WHS was featured in the State’s newsletter out of a number of districts also part of the grant challenge. Mr. Perugini, Principal of WHS remarked, “it was great to see WHS featured in a State Spotlight when I opened up my email that morning. Applying for financial aid may seem like an easy task but it isn’t, our school staff is helping to make the process easier for our students and families. We want to see our students succeed and excel throughout their high school academic journey and that means going the extra few steps to provide support and assistance in complex tasks like FAFSA, which the Federal government has now specifically tried to make more streamlined for applicants. Thank you to our School Counseling Department for leading this challenge. We are committed to serving our families and students in every possible way.”
It looks favorable that WHS will undoubtedly increase the number of families who apply for FAFSA this year as part of the challenge. The team has been offering information sessions for families, sending out email blasts, incentivizing students at school, and from this latest highlight in the State Newsletter, catching the attention of other school district teams to share ideas that can help the entire Watertown/Oakville region.
In sharing about some of the strategies they’ve employed this year, Bates said, “We increased communication about FAFSA, promoting upcoming events and sending more information out to families about the FAFSA. We weren’t focusing our attention there in previous years, we would share FAFSA information at senior meetings but didn’t actively follow-up with families. We are finding that frequent reminders are making a difference. We recently held a FSA ID Night, 25 families attended! We helped families navigate to the website and provided step-by-step guidance on how to create an FSA ID. We utilized the grant funding to raffle off some prizes which made the event really fun - everyone got something! Prizes included Apple AirPods, Senior Prom Package, yearbooks and college sweatshirts.We had families emailing afterwards to say thank you, they were grateful for the support.
Students and families also participated in a FSA ID Night in late November at Watertown High School” and lastly, as Bates put it so simply, “A little goes a long way. We try not to overextend, [because we] know we are making a difference even if it's one student at a time.”
