MOCAN – Missouri College & Career Attainment Network

MOACAC Virtual Spring Conference
2021-04-19 - 2021-04-21

Jefferson College Conversations on Diversity: Creating an Inclusive Community to Combat Racism
2021-04-16 13:00 - 14:30 (America/Chicago)

MDHEWD Bridges to Success Webinar: Best Practices for College Access Past, Present, and National Pandemic
2021-04-15 12:00 - 13:00

St. Louis Graduates Virtual Professional Development Institute: Match & Fit: Choosing College Virtually
2021-04-09 10:00 - 11:00

Sallie Mae Webinar with Missouri State Treasurer Scott Fitzpatrick: How to Find Free Money and Save for College
2021-04-07 18:00 - 19:00
It is never too late to find free money to help pay for college or to start saving for education! Whether your child or grandchild is getting ready for K-12 or higher education, the time to figure out your options and plan is now. Learn how the MOST 529 Education Plan can be a part of your education savings strategy.
Did you know that there are scholarship opportunities for almost any hobby, talent, interest, or sport which can provide free money that can be used to cover the costs of higher education? To learn more about savings, resources, and scholarships, please join the Missouri State Treasurer’s Office, MOST 529 Education Savings Plan, and Sallie Mae for this free webinar.
You will gain valuable information and tips to maximize your savings and scholarships to apply to your technical, vocational certification, or college degree. We hope you can join us!

MOACAC Show-Me Virtual Spring College Fair
2021-04-06 - 2021-04-08

St. Louis Graduates Virtual Professional Development Institute: Financial Aid series with MASFAP: Year in Review Roundtable: Financial Aid Officers Answer Your Questions About Financial Aid Packages
2021-04-02 10:00 - 11:00

NCAN Webinar: African American Males Pursuing Educational Dreams: AAMPED Up!
2021-03-31 13:00 - 14:00
Join this webinar to learn more about NCAN member Crosby Scholars’ AAMPED – African American Males Pursuing Educational Dreams – program. AAMPED provides workshops specifically for African American males to help them build both life and college success skills. AAMPED also serves to mentor students and their parents along the college and career pathway. The core of the program is designed with workshops and seminars to build skills and relationships that will foster a sense of belonging, and to boost retention in Crosby Scholars’ award-winning college access program.
Presenters will take a deeper dive to help attendees understand AAMPED programming and operations.

NCAN Webinar: Scaling Success Services: Strategies for Promoting Postsecondary Success
2021-03-30 13:00 - 14:00
The year-long pandemic has exacerbated the growing gap in postsecondary enrollment and completion for students of color, first generation to college students and students from low-income backgrounds. Prior to the pandemic, NCAN was working with 12 NCAN member organizations to address these gaps with the generous support of a Michael & Susan Dell Foundation grant. Over a three-year period, these member organizations set out to expand their student success services in their respective communities, and what we learned was a pretty clear formula for scaling success services. We recently documented the experiences of five organizations expanding their college access programs to support students through college completion and invite you to learn more about the useful strategies and approaches they leaned on to promote postsecondary success for their students during this hour-long webinar panel discussion.

St. Louis Graduates Virtual Professional Development Institute: Career Pathways series with STEMSTL: Trades and First Responders
2021-03-26 10:00 - 11:00

Student African American Brotherhood (SAAB) Leadership Training Summit
2021-03-19 - 2021-03-20
The SAAB Leadership Training Summit is designed to effectively engage, develop, and train disadvantaged, underrepresented, and underserved young males of color who have promising futures as leaders, future husbands, and fathers along with becoming productive and contributing citizens in society.

St. Louis Graduates Virtual Professional Development Institute: Match & Fit: Supporting Student Transfer Plans
2021-03-12 10:00 - 11:00

MDHEWD Bridges to Success Webinar: Supporting Student Success and Equity During COVID-19: A Women’s College Success Center Perspective
2021-03-11 12:00 - 13:00

MOCAN in Partnership with NCAN: FCAN Webinar: FAFSA Verification Update - Reducing "Melt" with a More Targeted Approach
2021-03-11 12:00 - 13:00
Too many low-income students experience “verification melt”, according to the National College Attainment Network (NCAN). Roughly half of Pell-eligible FAFSA applicants are flagged for verification, with 25% of them failing to complete the process. For many of these students, it will stymy their college plans all together.
NCAN conducted a comprehensive review looking at the impact of FAFSA verification on Pell Grant awards. Given the burdensome process for students and financial aid departments, is verification achieving its intended purpose of ensuring the integrity of expended funds while delivering aid to Pell-eligible students? NCAN will share important findings that can guide more effective approaches. They will also share updates to the FSA verification targets as well as approaches to use when working with students who have been selected for FAFSA verification.
In this session you will learn:

How the vast majority of students selected for verification see no change to their Pell award.
How differentiating between auto-zero and non-auto-zero EFC applicants can improve approaches while reducing the burden of the verification process.
Recent changes to the FSA verification target.
Best practices to use when working with students selected for FAFSA verification.

St. Louis Graduates Virtual Professional Development Institute: Financial Aid series with MASFAP: Gap Funding and Scholarships: Helping Students and Families Understand their Bill
2021-03-05 10:00 - 11:00

Lumina Foundation Webinar: Equity First - A Conversation with Dr. Ibram X. Kendi
2021-03-03 14:00 - 15:00
Join us for a special conversation in our Racial Justice and Equity Series with Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, National Book Award winner and author of How to Be an Antiracist, Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, and editor of Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019. Dr. Kendi leads the Boston University Center for Antiracist Research. This conversation, facilitated by Lumina Foundation Senior Vice President and Chief Policy Officer Dr. Danette Howard, will explore how racism and inequity are entrenched and advanced through public policy, and how public policy can become a tool for equity and justice.

St. Louis Graduates Virtual Professional Development Institute: Career Pathways series with STEMSTL: Information Technology & Gaming
2021-02-26 10:00 - 11:00

Sallie Mae Webinar: Navigating Financial Aid Offers
2021-02-25 19:00 - 20:00, 2021-02-24 13:00 - 14:00
After being accepted to college, you’ll receive a financial aid offer that outlines your financial aid eligibility at that specific school. Each financial aid offer will contain similar information overall, but since there’s no standard format they can be difficult to interpret. In this session you’ll learn how to decipher each financial aid offer so you can confidently determine which college is the best fit.

NCAN Webinar: Moving the College Access Needle for the New Majority
2021-02-25 14:00 - 15:00
While high school graduation rates have improved across the nation, large gaps in postsecondary enrollment and degree completion persist, especially for students of color and students from low-income backgrounds. These inequitable results demand new K-12 district- and school-level approaches for supporting students’ postsecondary transitions.
NCAN’s new report focuses on four school districts across the country that have moved the needle on their students’ postsecondary outcomes: Miami-Dade, FL, Lancaster, PA, Brownsville, TX, and Philadelphia, PA. These districts shared the principles and practices that are replicable, practical, and actionable for communities across the country, no matter their shape, size, or current approach to providing postsecondary advising.
Join NCAN on Feb. 25 for an engaging webinar to examine this report’s findings, hear from some of the practitioners it features, and find new practices to implement in your own district, school, and community. Panelists will also discuss how they have adapted their work in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
This webinar is open to both NCAN members and the general public.

Hispanic Scholarship Fund Bilingual College 101
2021-02-24 18:00 - 21:00
The College 101 Series features free, bilingual, 3-hour, college preparation workshops held virtually in various time zones. The programs are designed to help middle and high school students – and their parents – prepare, plan, and pay for college. Topics include preparing for and applying to college, choosing a college that’s the right fit, writing a personal statement, researching financial aid and scholarship opportunities, and understanding the real cost of a college education. Students and parents can choose to receive information in either English or Spanish.

MOCAN in Partnership with NCAN: FCAN Webinar: Financial Aid Updates and Special Circumstances
2021-02-24 10:00 - 11:00
With the latest omnibus spending/COVID relief bill passed, there are several ways financial aid will change. Carrie Warick will join us to share an update on how student-centered approaches will improve access to financial aid, including FAFSA simplification, expanded Pell eligibility and changes to expected family contribution (EFC). These changes will better equip families as they build a plan to pay for college. Daniel Barkowitz will share how students impacted by COVID-19 can work with their financial aid administrators for a professional judgment adjustment in response to their special circumstances. Register for Part III in the series to hear how early awareness along with a simplified FAFSA will improve advisors’ ability to guide students. Get all the latest updates!
In this session, you will learn:

Important ways FAFSA will be simplified that should make it easier for students to complete.
How Expected Family Contribution (EFC) will change to the Student Aid Index (SAI), and what this means for students.
How the new way to measure Pell Grant eligibility will make it easier for students to learn earlier in the process whether they qualify and expands the number of students receiving the maximum amount.
How students impacted by COVID-19 can work with their financial aid administrators to adjust their financial aid package through professional judgment.

NCAN Webinar: How FAFSA Simplification Will Change Financial Aid
2021-02-11 13:00 - 14:00
At the end of 2020, Congress enacted and the president signed into law a government funding and COVID relief package that included several sweeping higher education developments via the FAFSA Simplification Act. NCAN members, join us for this deep dive session with esteemed financial aid expert Mark Kantrowitz to walk through the substantial changes that are coming to the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) process and determination of Pell Grant eligibility. During this session, Mark will share what is known about the “simplified” version of the aid application expected in time for the 2023-2024 FAFSA. These developments are a culmination of years of work among Congress, the college access and financial aid fields, and student advocates.
The webinar will include time for a Q&A discussion. In the registration process, linked below, you will have the ability to submit questions in advance for our guest presenter to answer.

MDHEWD Bridges to Success Equity Webinar Series: Understanding Equity Across the Student Experience
2021-02-11 12:00 - 13:00

NCAN Webinar: 7 Ways to Transform Your NSC Data... And Your Work
2021-02-10 13:00 - 14:00
The National Student Clearinghouse’s StudentTracker service is an invaluable resource for districts, schools, and college access and success programs. Using StudentTracker, programs can receive individual-level data on students’ postsecondary outcomes. Despite the usefulness of this data, many, many programs and practitioners are daunted by, or stumble over, analyzing the files they get back from the NSC. Understandably so! The data can be complicated!
Join NCAN’s director of data and evaluation and experts from two college access-focused consultancies (The Vela Institute and UnlockED) for a dive into tips and tricks to improve your use of StudentTracker data. Although this won’t be a full “how-to” on each strategy, presenters will cover the high points, general steps to take, and the potential benefits.
Attendees of all skill and familiarity levels are welcome to attend, but this will be a technical webinar, so brush up on the StudentTracker ahead of time, if you can.

St. Louis Graduates Virtual Professional Development Institute: Financial Aid series with MASFAP: Interpreting Financial Aid Offer Letters
2021-02-05 10:00 - 11:00

ACT Webinar: Advancing Postsecondary Success: Strategies for Men of Color in the Age of Covid-19
2021-02-03 15:00 - 16:00
Join us for a 60-minute session that will highlight Dr. Bledsoe’s personal story and his experience as a young Black youth who spoke with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the effect that interaction had on his life trajectory, living in the segregated South during the 1960s. Dr. Bledsoe will also share his SAAB student-driven model of empowering men of color to be change agents for personal and community success.
After Dr. Bledsoe’s presentation, he will facilitate a panel discussion of current SAAB students who will share their personal stories and challenges of being men of color attending college during a global pandemic.

St. Louis Graduates Virtual Professional Development Institute: Career Pathways series with STEMSTL: Healthcare
2021-01-29 10:00 - 11:00

The Keys to College Essay Writing Webinar
2021-01-13 16:00 - 17:00
Hear from current students about their experiences writing essays for college applications and scholarships. Get answers to the most common questions about essay writing from our faculty and admissions staff!

NCAN Webinar: Cultivating Cultural Humility in College Access Spaces
2021-01-07 13:00 - 14:00
In the college access and success field, professionals often find themselves working with students who hold identities different than their own. In this work, it is important for professionals to have an understanding of diversity, equity, and inclusion, as it is an integral piece to being able to serve students well and advocate on their behalf as they navigate the college-going process.
This webinar is designed for professionals in the field who are interested in furthering conversations around equity and cultural differences in their organization. It will include open, honest dialogue about cultural humility and awareness designed to provoke thought about what students experience based on their background.
