The holidays are near, and nothing warms us more than looking back at all our Peer Leaders have accomplished so far this school year. At the high school level, Peer Leaders have been busy supporting their peers as they fill out college applications, file for financial aid, and research their career options. On college campuses, Peer Leaders are checking in on their teams of classmates, connecting them to campus resources, and encouraging them through academic and personal obstacles.
It’s surely a busy time, but that doesn’t slow our Peer Leaders down! Catch a glimpse of some of the PeerForward action that happened this semester:
FAFSA Lock-in at Miami Northwestern High School
The PeerForward team at Miami Northwestern High School in Fla. is made up of eight fierce young women. When they’re not figuring out their own steps to get to college, they’re honing their expertise on applying for financial aid and filing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). Then, they put their knowledge to work by inviting families at their school to events like their FAFSA Lock-in this October. There, Peer Leaders personally guided parents and students through creating the FSA ID and filing the FAFSA, a process often challenging for families to complete on their own. They took things a step further and made sure attendees were fed, too, by securing free catering from a local business after advocating the importance of their financial aid event.
After witnessing this, PeerForward Coach Loubert Senatus shared, “I walked away humbled by the strength of these Peer Leaders. The grace that they have for their school community was inspiring.”
PeerForward Leadership Council Supports FAFSA Nights in NYC
The PeerForward Leadership Council is our junior board of professionals passionate about the work we do to guide students on the path to higher education. Leadership Council members often show their support for PeerForward by volunteering at Summer Workshops, fundraising for our program, and spreading the word about us throughout their networks. This semester, Leadership Council members went above and beyond to show their support by attending FAFSA nights at Thurgood Marshall Academy and American Sign Language and English Secondary School in NYC. At these events, Leadership Council members helped facilitate financial aid informational sessions and personally sat with families to answer questions and help them file the FAFSA correctly. Their support at these FAFSA events helped students, many of whom will be first-generation to go to college, to complete a vital first step in securing the financial aid to fund their pursuit of higher education.
Promoting PeerForward at Broward College
Peer Leaders at Broward College in Florida have done incredible work to build the skills they need to ensure their peers complete their degree. As the first group of Peer Leaders at Broward College, though, they are first tasked with building initial awareness on campus of who Peer Leaders are and how they can help fellow students complete their college journeys. That’s been no sweat to this determined group of Peer Leaders, who worked hard to promote PeerForward by setting up information tables and speaking with in-person students at activity fairs throughout this fall semester. At a single outreach event, they successfully yielded nearly 100 sign-ups of students interested in being matched to a Peer Leader, culminating in high student interest to be part of PeerForward on campus.
