OCAPICA PRESENTS FREE FINANCIAL AID WORKSHOP FOR PARENTS
12900 Garden Grove Blvd. Suite 214A, Garden Grove, CA 92843
http://www.ocapica.org
(714) 636-8828 fax
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact:
February 7, 2007 Jennifer
Kuo jkuo@ocapica.org
OCAPICA
(714) 636-9095 x204
OCAPICA PRESENTS FREE FINANCIAL AID WORKSHOP FOR PARENTS
Garden Grove - The Orange County Asian and Pacific Islander Community
Alliance (OCAPICA) SOAR Afterschool Program will present a free
financial aid workshop for parents in Vietnamese. A guest speaker from
UC Irvine Financial Aid and Scholarships office will be presenting. The
workshop will help and explain Free Application for Federal Student Aid
(FAFSA), grants, and loans.
Though mistakenly labeled as the model minority, many Asian American and
Pacific Islander students are underserved and have difficulty accessing
academic resources. According to the APALC Demographic report, only 21%
of Vietnamese in Orange County 25 years and older have a bachelor’s
degree or higher, this is well below the county average of 31%. Many of
our current students indicate that the cost of college is one of the
reasons, they do not apply. The average median household income of
Vietnamese in Orange County is lower than the county median.
“Our last workshop was a great success and we were so happy to see a
large turnout of not only youth but their parents, which is why we are
doing another workshop just for parents. Many were not aware of FAFSA
and would not have realized this as an opportunity to fund for college.
For many families, this is their first child applying to college and
filling out a FAFSA form can be a very intimidating experience.
Hopefully this workshop will help our families,” said Jennifer Kuo,
program coordinator.
The workshop is entirely free of charge and will be held at the OCAPICA
Conference room at 12900 Garden Grove Boulevard, Suite 240A in Garden
Grove on Tuesday, February 27, 2007 from 6:30PM-8:00PM. Please RSVP as
soon as possible to reserve a spot since participation will be
guaranteed to the first thirty that register. To RSVP or for more
information, participants are encouraged to call either (714) 530-2323
for Vietnamese or (714) 636-9095 for English. Workshop will be
presented in Vietnamese. Participants are highly encouraged but not
required to bring both youth and parents’ income and tax information.
Established in 1997, OCAPICA is a non-profit organization whose mission
is to build a healthier and stronger community by enhancing the
well-being of Asians and Pacific Islanders through inclusive
partnerships in the areas of service, education, advocacy, organizing,
and research.