Volunteer opportunity description:

Our Volunteers will initially be targeting the Oklahoma’s Promise program for 8^th through 10^th graders that pays full tuition to Oklahoma colleges. 75% of the students who sign up for the Promise program go to college. When a student knows they can afford to go to college if they meet the program’s college prep requirements, they become highly motivated to achieve in high school. 

Hispanic students have a unique problem because many of their parents do not speak English well and have trouble filling out the Promise and the FAFSA forms that are necessary for the majority of applications for scholarships and financial aid including. We are working with people from the bilingual department at TCC to develop bilingual instructional material and to train a group of Spanish speakers who will meet with Hispanic parents to help them fill out the FAFSA. 

We are doing all we can to help kids go to college because a post high school education is becoming a critical metric for them as well as the future success of our state.  Currently about half of the jobs in Oklahoma required only a high school education and graduating from high school gives people a lot of opportunities for entry level jobs where they can gain experience and advance their career. But by 2028, the percentage of jobs open to high school graduates is projected to drop to 23% according to the Oklahoma State System for Higher Education. This change in educational requirements is being driven by advances in artificial intelligence that has led to the development of new machines that are expected to replace workers doing repetitive tasks in all areas of business not just manufacturing Those with the right skills and education will move into higher paying jobs created by these changes. Those who do not get more education beyond high school will be in the portion of the workforce in low wage jobs with few benefits or protections, where roles change frequently as technology regularly replaces lower skilled workers. 

Volunteers should be familiar with the college application process,  doing computer downloads and have have your own laptop. You don't need accounting experience to be able to fill out these financial aid applications, only the ability to be able to navigate and download information from the IRS website containing the parent's information required to be submitted with these forms. 

We would like volunteers to commit to work with three families during the school year and you  could do more if you wanted.  Meetings with students and their parents are expected to be scheduled on Saturday mornings once a month during the school year at a reserved area in a public library in the neighborhood of the school the student attends. We will have a training session for all volunteers this Summer before the new school year. 

Volunteer opportunity location: