ACT Center for Equity in Learning’s very own Juan Garcia appeared on Univision’s Despierta America morning show last Monday. He was a part of a segment discussing investing in education #InvierteEnEducacion. As back-to-school approaches, the segment gave great insight to parents on ways they can be best involved within their child’s education sphere this school year. Garcia highlighted first steps for parents interested in their children’s success along with concrete ways they can invest in their secondary and post-secondary education.
Garcia encouraged parents to be realistic about current and future goals for their children. He told viewers that in order to reveal a path to college, “…you must first achieve a high school diploma…” and urged parents to be proactive in their student’s development. The key to remaining active in your child’s progress is by staying on top of coursework and graduation requirements. This will help to guarantee they are prepared for the next grade and on track for graduating from high school on time.
The nationally broadcasted live TV interview was followed by a Facebook Live event, which had 7,100 users join the Univision Contigo Facebook page, and so far the recorded video has been viewed more than 27,000 times (you can watch, too!). With Univision having the largest news center in the world, the views proved that this was the perfect platform for Garcia to share these tips and resources to parents in Hispanic communities everywhere. This information along with other tools and initiatives are aimed at helping to level the playing field in these communities for generations to come. The language specific tools that were mentioned in the interview are listed below (en Español):
Key to Success – Provides tips on improving development through each impressionable stage of their children’s lives. They also provide tools that parents can use to communicate effectively with school officials when there may be a language barrier.
FAFSA – The free application to apply for federal student aid. This can potentially qualify students for Pell grants, federal student loans, and need based scholarships from their intended university.
College Abacus – This tool allows students and families to compare and estimate tuition, potential scholarships and grants based on financial need for more than 5,000 universities.
ACT Profile- A multiplatform tool that maps personalized results from ACT’s free college and career planning assessments. It populates those results onto interactive career and major plans for users. These maps “offer access to information about 1,500 popular majors and nearly 6,000 different careers”
Juan Garcia can be reached at juan.garcia@act.org