Wiregrass EOC to hold Financial Aid Workshops
The Wiregrass Educational Opportunity Center (EOC) will hold two financial aid workshops for students who need assistance in completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).
The Wiregrass EOC is a federally funded TRiO program aimed to assist students who dropped out of high school or never attended/didn’t complete post-secondary training and wish to return to school. The program serves students in Coffee, Dale, Geneva, and Houston counties and helps with FAFSA completion, the college admissions process, and more. The FAFSA is an application that connects students with federal financial aid to help them pay for school, such as through the Pell Grant.
The first EOC financial aid workshop will be held July 12 in the Enterprise State Community College Student Center Community Room from 1-3 p.m. The second will be held July 14 in the computer lab in the ATTC Building at the Alabama Aviation College from 1-3p.m.
Wiregrass EOC Director Jennifer Braden said the event is for first-time college students who haven’t completed their FAFSA or those students who plan to return to college who need assistance filling out the application. She said EOC will assist students who complete the application for any college.
“Completing the FAFSA can be a very daunting task,” EOC Director Jennifer Braden said. “One of the main purposes of our grant is to assist students in the completion of the FAFSA as well as helping them research other sources of money to assist them in the pursuit of their educational dreams.”
Students planning to attend college this fall will need to complete the 2022-23 FAFSA. Students are encouraged to bring a copy of their 2020 income tax forms to help with the completion of the application.
If a student is under the age of 24, he or she may be considered a dependent student for Financial Aid purposes, unless he or she is or was in the military, has a spouse, has dependents for whom they provide more than 50% of their support, or was in foster care while over the age of 13.
If a student is considered dependent, he or she will need to provide their parents’ 2020 tax information to complete the FAFSA, and one parent will have to sign the FAFSA with the student.
“EOC personnel have helped many students complete the FAFSA,” Braden said. “We don’t ever want the completion of a FAFSA to be something that deters a student from attending school.”
Students are not required but are encouraged to RSVP to this event by completing the form at https://bit.ly/3ABVtwD or by scanning the QR code on the flyer. For more information about the event or about the Wiregrass EOC, students can call (334) 406-0495 or visit escc.edu/eoc.