Horizon Point Consulting

Author: Mary Ila Ward

Paying for College – What are the options?

The average cost of college is $23,000 per year and rising annually. This is intimidating for both students and parents alike. However, there are tons of scholarships and financial aid tools out there. Just knowing where to go for information is worth reading this article.

So, let’s get started. First, you should become familiar with the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid). Completing this application is essential for high school students who will be applying for scholarships. Many scholarships require the FAFSA application be completed prior to completing their application. Here is a link to the website and online application: Federal Student Aid.

In addition to applying for scholarships through your school of choice, ask your high school counselor for a comprehensive list of scholarships. You can also register and apply for scholarships with FastWeb.

Types of Federal Student Aid” Video

Check out this video to learn about grants, loans, and work-study jobs and how they can help fund your education. (Captioning available in English and Spanish; just start the video and click on the CC symbol at the bottom.)

Grants and scholarships are other alternatives to paying for college. According to StudentAid.Gov:

Grants and scholarships are often called “gift aid” because they are free money—financial aid that doesn’t have to be repaid. Grants are often need-based, while scholarships are usually merit-based. Grants and scholarships can come from the federal government, your state government, your college or career school, or a private or nonprofit organization. Do your research, apply for any grants or scholarships you might be eligible for, and be sure to meet application deadlines!

Student loans are another way to pay for school. Unlike grants, loans are borrowed funds and must be repaid. In addition to Federal Student Loans, private loans are also readily available and may have higher interest rates.

For more insight on paying for college, check out H ow to Nail Down a Great College Financial Aid Package fromForbes.com.

July 30, 2015
3 STEPS TO BETTER LEADERSHIP
Leaders make more leaders. You aren’t a leader if you don’t. But how do you go about making more leaders? By acting as a career agent, you can successfully combat disengagement and serve the role that a leader is meant to serve- growing others.

But how do you play the role of career agent? Here are three easy steps:

1. ASK & ASSESS: Asking simply involves deploying the question, “What do you want out of your career?” in individual meetings with your subordinates. You may want to break this down into what they want 1 year, 3 years, 5 years and 10 years from now. This is a simple but powerful question that begins to frame how you can begin to act as a career agent by knowing first hand what outcomes a person is seeking.

Once you have asked this question, you need to assess where people are in their path to the outcomes they want. This includes an honest assessment on your part and on their part about their strengths and areas for development. You can do this in a casual way through one-on-one conversations, or deploy self-assessment and/or 360° evaluation tools.

2. GAME PLAN: The direction a person seeks and the results of the assessment phase then give you the opportunity to develop a game plan for maximizing that person towards their goals with the organization’s needs in mind. This game plan should accomplish three things:
- Address areas of strength and weakness in assessment phase
- Lead to more engagement from the employee
- Meet business needs
The game plan should include both:
- WORK ASSIGNMENTS: These assignments should contribute directly to what the organization needs and should be opportunities for growth for the person. For example, you may have a pressing business need to map out all of your organization’s processes to streamline and create efficiency. Utilizing someone on your team who has this strength OR has never done something like this before (depending on the situation is who you would assign) can help the organization meet the need and help the person grow a strength or develop in an uncharted area.
- PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES: These activities are things that the person should take responsibility for accomplishing on their own time through their own initiative and effort. For example, it may be attending an accounting class, reading articles on certain topics, or taking on or pursuing a mentoring relationship.
3. EXPOSURE: The final step of the process actually involves following through on your end of the deal as a leader when the person follows through on their gameplan. As we described in a previous article on this topic in Alabama HR Magazine, beginning on page 14, make people aware of opportunities that arise, even if they are outside your organization.

This may mean letting them go to another organization. If you’re having career agent conversations with people, they are going to be more productive and you probably don’t want to loose this type of employee.

This may seem counter intuitive to an employee retention strategy, however, making employees aware of outside opportunities that are a fit for their career plans, and helping facilitate those opportunities even if they are outside your organization, is a good move in the long run.

They become walking and talking recruitment ads for you and your organization, which is hard to come by for free. It leads to a bigger picture recruitment and retention strategy. And who knows, their career path may lead them back to your organization more valuable than when they left.”

The leaders as career agent process can be one that replaces your performance evaluation/appraisal system if done correctly. Consider it as a new paradigm in how you evaluate, develop and grow people within your organization.

Help Leaders become Career Agents with a helpful tool found here.

Want to teach people to be career agents? Check out our Leaders as Career Agents course outline.
July 27, 2015
Resumes – A Must for High School Students
A resume is essential for college or career bound high school students. Applying for colleges is competitive, as is applying for a job. An easy to read, well-developed resume that sets you apart from others can help put you in a favorable position.

So, how do you get started? First, you should make a comprehensive list of your academic achievements and extracurricular activities. Be sure to include all activities, honors, jobs, internships, volunteer hours, and so on. Ask others for input. Teachers, counselors, parents and friends can be helpful in creating your list.

Next, you can begin to build your resume. It is important to keep your resume to one page if possible. Here are a few key items to include:
- A header with basic information including your name, address, phone number and email address.
- Overview (optional): Can be used for a specific purpose such as consideration for a scholarship or intended major
- Key Stats: Class rank, GPA, SAT and/or ACT score
- Education: High schools attended. (Optional: Senior year classes & AP or impressive courses taken prior to senior year)
- School Activities: List activities and grade including clubs, class activities, sports, etc. Include leadership roles and special recognition.
- Community Activities: List activities, leadership roles and grades during which you participated.
- Enrichment Activities: Include relevant programs, special projects, travel experiences, hobbies, musical accomplishments
- Work Experience: Starting with the most recent, list each work experience, including job title, business name and location, dates of your employment. Include anything else that would be impressive (e.g. specific duties, recognition).
- Volunteer roles
As you are working on building an amazing resume, consider using action verbs. Quintessential Careers has a good list to get you started.

For sample resumes, check out these links:

College Basics

Basic Sample Resume

Adventures in Education

Finally, don’t forget that your resume is an opportunity to market yourself! Essentially, it showcases your strengths and abilities. Allow your talents, passions and values to shine and you will set yourself apart from the crowd!
July 22, 2015
How to Write a Killer College Application and/or Scholarship Essay

Writing essays for college or scholarship applications can be intimidating. Just getting started can be a daunting task. Here are easy to follow steps for writing a killer essay:

1. Follow the instructions. This is a very important step. Read and re-read the instructions and make sure you follow them accordingly.

2. Make your essay personal. The reader should feel like they know you. Share your talents, passions and values. Include why you want to go to college and why you should be awarded the scholarship. Share information about why you’re interested in the field and any extracurricular activities, volunteer hours or internship/job shadowing experiences that are relevant.

3. Use standard essay format and quality white paper.

4. Ask someone to proofread your essay. A parent, counselor or teacher are all good choices.

5. Ask for letters of recommendations from those who know you well. As a courtesy, give those writing recommendations a few weeks to provide the letter and always write a thank you note.

6. Include your resume with your essay and/or application.

For more ideas including a sample essay, check out Scholarship Tips and Advice.

July 21, 2015
What you need to complete a college application

Every college application is different, and before you begin your college applications, you need to make sure you understand the ins and outs of applications. Once you understand the basics, you can gather information that will most likely be standard on most applications, to save you time and effort in completing all the materials.

Here is list of what you most likely will need:

*Some schools require that this information be filled in on the application, others request a resume that contains this type of information.

Save yourself some time and energy by gathering this information before you sit down to complete your applications.

What do you think is the biggest headache of completing college apps?

July 15, 2015