Napa Valley Register- NVC forum encourages students in hunt for financial aid

Higher education can be the key to a better-paying, more productive adulthood. But how can college students avoid being sucked under by debt in search of their dreams?

At a college affordability forum presented by Napa Valley College, NVC staff joined U.S. Department of Education officials and Rep. Mike Thompson to lay out a road map to financial assistance for those already enrolled and for high school seniors poised to do so.

With expenses for a four-year education running deep into five or six figures, forum hosts called finding any and all angles to ease the financial burden perhaps the most pressing issue in higher education.

"The rising cost of education has long been a vexing issue; too many people have had to take on historic levels of debt to finance their education, or their children's education," Thompson, D-St. Helena, told an audience of about 100 people, including more than 20 local high school seniors, at the Little Theater.

"Clearly we need to bring down the cost of higher education to a more affordable level, but until that time, we need to make sure that people know all the avenues available to them."

Speakers at Monday's forum outlined the range of resources to pay for a college education, from the federal government's Pell Grants and direct loans to the range of benefits created by California's Dream Act in 2011 to reach undocumented students and others not eligible for conventional assistance. Students also were encouraged to look further afield at programs trading assistance for work commitments, such as the federal TEACH Grant program in which recipients agree to serve as schoolteachers for four years after graduating.

Facing such a variety of paths, however, many students also need to cast aside misconceptions about the limits of eligibility – that only those with the highest grades can secure grants and loans, for example, or that their family income disqualifies them for help, said Joe Barison, spokesman for the Education Department's San Francisco office.

"Even a super-super-investor, a Warren Buffett, a Bill Gates can have kids who are eligible for financial aid," he told the forum audience. "Eligibility is about the students, not the parents."

As NVC's dean of financial aid, Patti Morgan said such misunderstandings persist even among those already at the college, making education about student assistance essential.

"We want students to apply every year to get the maximum they can receive, because students can set money aside," she said, citing the example of carrying unused grant money into the next school year. "That way, they may avoid having to borrow later."

For one student approaching graduation from NVC, the challenges of piecing together money at times seemed overwhelming – even a search for scholarship programs.

"It took a day to find two scholarships I was even eligible to apply for," said Erika Huether, who is seeking money to transfer to a four-year university in the fall. "I was clicking links, reading things, filling out questionnaires – and at the end it was, ‘Thank you for registering.' It's like you're hitting your head against a wall.

Though she admitted "weighing the benefit of education with the fear of debt," Huether, who hopes to go to UC Berkeley for a philosophy degree, expressed her gratitude for the guidance offered at NVC and elsewhere.

"It gives you're that feeling of not being alone," she said.

Napa Valley College will take up the affordability issue again during Super Saturday, a Feb. 21 event at the McCarthy Library to educate students about financial aid and scholarships.