AzCAN News & Updates

Free Financial Aid Advising

AzCAN was recently awarded a grant through NCAN and Capital One to provide FREE FAFSA and financial aid advising office hours for students and families at the Capital One Cafe in Scottsdale Fashion Square between 10:00 am and 2:00 pm on the following Saturdays:

• January 27th
• February 24th
• March 23rd

Encourage students and families you work with to take advantage of this 1:1 FAFSA completion support with trained Ask Benji staff members.

Spring CAP Training Courses

The spring 2024 CAP Training courses are open for registration - the first course begins on January 15th. Completion of the four Financial Aid CAP courses results in an Arizona Financial Aid Specialist certification through AzCAN - register for your classes now!

Complete the FAFSA and Receive Spring Training Tickets!

The Arizona Cactus League and the Arizona Board of Regents are teaming up to encourage college-bound Arizona high school seniors to fill out the FAFSA.

The first 1000 students who meet all promotion guidelines and apply will receive four free Arizona Cactus League spring training tickets - it is easy to qualify:

• Be a current senior attending an Arizona high school,
• Complete the 2024-2025 FAFSA, and
• Complete the spring training submission form

NCAN News and Updates

Although FAFSA is taking up a lot of brain space, it’s clearly not the only thing on our minds.

First, chronic absenteeism is plaguing lots of schools, especially high schools around the country. All of our in-school interventions, programming, and messaging is great, but if it doesn’t get to a student because they’re not in attendance, that’s a problem. The Education Trust has this handy post on ways to address chronic absenteeism.

Second, connecting students with financial aid is just one component of effective advising. A recent study of a survey of more than 14,000 New York City Department of Education seniors found that these college advising focus areas were the most relevant predictors of planning to attend college full-time in the fall:

• Receiving “some” to “a lot” of help in completing college applications;
• Receiving “a lot” of help in understanding the difference between for-profit and not-for-profit colleges (though in reverse direction); and
• Receiving “a lot” of help in writing personal statements and/or supplemental essays.

Do you need graduate credit for salary advancement or to resolve an ADE K-12 school counselor certification credit deficiency? Effective January 2024, all CAP Training courses are eligible for graduate credits through Lindenwood University Learn more here or email me for more questions.

Dr. Jennifer Murphy,

Senior Director, Attainment and AzCAN

The 2024 Arizona FAFSA Challenge

The 2024 Arizona FAFSA Challenge is a statewide initiative that aims to spark a surge in Arizona high school seniors completing the FAFSA. Last year, 45 percent of Arizona's graduating seniors completed the FAFSA. This year, we’re aiming for 50! 

As an extra challenge, we're pushing each high school to increase their FAFSA completion rate by 5 percent or more, contributing to our statewide goal. Learn more about the Arizona FAFSA Challenge and how to participate by registering for the webinar on January 18th from 10-11 a.m. Let the challenge begin!

NCAN Resources

Recent findings from a CCR-related survey,

provided by school leaders, revealed both troubling and illuminating insights on postsecondary outcomes. Read here.

Helpful resources:

Better FAFSA Training Toolkit

Better FAFSA Page

Better FAFSA Awareness Toolkit