College Goal sites to help high school seniors apply for college financial aid

High school seniors and their parents are invited to participate Sunday in College Goal Sunday.

The national event, which is free, assists students in applying for federal student aid. At each location, financial aid professionals will help guide families, one on one, in filling out the applications.

This is the 16th year the Kansas Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators have hosted the event in Kansas. On Sunday, there will be 23 College Goal sites set up across the state. A student at each location will win a $500 scholarship to any college or trade school in the nation. Each recipient must be a first-semester freshman in the fall.

“We will be out there assisting the students and parents with the applications and helping them get the money they deserve,” said Gary Bateman, the 2015 College Goal Sunday chairman and associate director of financial aid at Ottawa University.

There will be two locations in Wichita: Evergreen Neighborhood Resource Center, 2700 N. Woodland; and the Wichita Area Technical College, 4004 N. Webb Road.

“For a lot of people, these applications are confusing,” Bateman said. “We gear our efforts to help the underserved populations – those with lower-income families, ethnic minorities and first-generation college students.”

Other locations in the Wichita area include El Dorado, Arkansas City and Hutchinson.

Sponsors of the event include the Kansas Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, USA Funds and the federal College Access Challenge Grant, which is administered by the Kansas Board of Regents.

This story was originally published February 15, 2015 at 6:35 PM with the headline "College Goal sites to help high school seniors apply for college financial aid."