Toledo Tomorrow is a cradle to career nonprofit organization that aims to ensure that all who desire higher education can have a path to obtaining their education as close to debt free as possible. Toledo Area Parent sat down with Mija Martin, education specialist at Toledo Tomorrow, and Bob Savage, president of Toledo Tomorrow, to hone in on what those seeking higher education should focus on as they prepare to transition from high school to college or trade school.
Education accessible to all
When asked what high school students and their families interested in pursuing higher education without large amounts of debt should focus on, Martin stresses the importance of starting the process of seeking out resources as early as possible.
“Apply to colleges early. Apply for scholarships early. Our dream school may not be within our budget, so always use community colleges as another route as well because you can always go to a community college that is affordable for a year or two, get your GPA up, and then transfer to a four-year university.”
She continues, “Do everything that you can on applications. Applications and those essays can pretty much tell whoever is reading it more information about you without meeting you, so if you don’t want to do the essay, you’re kind of already shorting yourself being awarded that opportunity.”
Savage added, “We have at least ten students that we worked with this year that are going to college on full rides next fall. They all wrote essays. Some of them weren’t very long. It might not have been more than a couple paragraphs.”
In essence, the more a student is willing to put into the application process, the higher the likelihood that one will be rewarded with more financial aid.
“The University of Toledo and Owens Community College are great colleges. You can receive fantastic education, and they also happen to be two of the better schools with financial aid,” Savage said. “Over half of the households in Toledo could send everyone in their house to Owens Community College for free under the federal Pell grant based on income.”
Toledo Tomorrow encourages students to apply for colleges and financial aid by Thanksgiving, as the amount of financial aid awarded after Thanksgiving begins to decrease.
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Alternative paths
For those students that may be considering attending a trade or technical school, Toledo Tomorrow wants to educate students that there may be FAFSA dollars available, depending on what the desired program of study is.
“For a forklift certification that is a two hundred dollar, sometimes two hundred fifty-dollar certification, FAFSA is not going to pay for that. But if you’re planning on going to trade school for like welding, or electrical, or something like that, FAFSA will definitely pay for that,” Martin said. “So, it really depends on what you plan to pursue during that time in trade school.”
Often, if students are able to obtain entry level positions in their desired field, potential employers may be willing to pay for students to obtain certifications. Another option is attending a community college and tacking on that certification to whatever degree is being pursued as well. Savage stresses that shortages within the workforce and just a simple boom in job opportunities in general means that there are many great opportunities for on-the-job training that did not exist in years past.
“It’s a good time to be looking for a job, and it’s a good time to be looking for additional training,” Savage said.
Partnership opportunities
One can find a list of partners for Toledo Tomorrow by visiting either of their two websites, toledotomorrow.org or nworep.org and selecting Contact Us, then “Partner with us.”
“We are here to work with students and adults regardless of religion, race, zip code, and regardless of their life circumstance,” Savage said. “We want to help them on pathways to meaningful and quality education and to enter the workforce with a good career, a career where they can not only be financially stable but thrive financially.”
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