![Azalia Quinn fills out a mock ballot. On Thursday, Oct. 24 AP Government students did a pretend election to experience what it’s like. “If you can get [students] enthused about voting at a young age, the chances are higher that they’re going to continue this process throughout their adulthood,“ Brian Brown, the AP Gov teacher said.](https://mshsprospector.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/18FGwFbMo8mtfWGnVEvaqiODxDZhuV9ipRw3DAgL-1200x960.jpg)
Jennifer Trainor, Manitou Springs College/Career and Gifted/Talented School Counselor for grades 6-12, helps many seniors with college and what comes after with events and programs.
Whether with her meetings about Free Applications for Federal Student Aid or FAFSA, or her weekly Scholarship Saturday emails where she tells senior students about new and upcoming scholarship opportunities, Trainor keeps seniors informed.
She recently added another program, Free-Money Fridays, where she helps students directly with scholarships and other opportunities every Friday. .
Like Scholarship Sundays, Free-Money Fridays give seniors an opportunity to receive help from Trainor and take control of their academic future.
“It’s really just for seniors. And it’s for them to come to the Media Center during Advisory on Fridays to get any help with financial aid, scholarship applications, FAFSA, anything that they need help with,” Trainor said. “Even if it’s college applications, but it’s specifically just trying to help kids figure out how to get free money for college.”
Seniors have a lot to focus on before graduation; Trainor wants to help anyone who needs it and give everyone their needed resources. With some paper scholarship applications available to anyone who asks. While she helps anyone who comes in with a scholarship and walks them through what questions they have, or provides the information needed for them to take it on. She wants seniors to get a start on these scholarships, big or small, as well as FAFSA.
Seniors Braelyn Maniates has she praises for Free-Money Fridays. “Free-Money Friday is a great opportunity for students to collect scholarships to be able to get into college and be assisted by the school,” Maniates said. “I was accepted into UCCS, but I don’t have the funds to actually go. scholarships are a very convenient way of being able to enroll in colleges.”
Some seniors attend the Free-Money Fridays even though they have college expenses covered. “Even though my school is getting taken care of because of a baseball and academic scholarship, it would be good to have money to fall on in case something happens,” Jacob Thomson (12) said.
Trainor wants seniors to take advantage of all the scholarships and free money out there, no matter how big or small. “There is so much scholarship money that does not get awarded because students don’t apply for the money,” Trainor said. “And so especially we have a lot of local scholarships that are not super competitive, so you have a really great chance of getting some of that free money.”
Senior Evan Waldo agrees with Trainor’s concern for money going unclaimed amongst the senior class.
“I think it’s a shame more students don’t show up for it. I also think it’s a shame that it’s very possible that nobody reads Mrs. Trainor’s emails telling them how to get scholarships,” Waldo said. “As far as I know, she sends one to every student every Saturday. Her work for the student body shouldn’t fly under the radar, and it’s a real shame that it does. It’s silly that it does.”
Llilawyn T • Feb 8, 2024 at 2:04 pm
Scholarships have been a huge point of stress for me over the past few weeks, but the help Ms. Trainor offers makes it a bit easier. She called me down to her office the other day to talk about scholarships which ended up being helpful. She showed me a few of our local scholarships but I didn’t realize they weren’t very competitive so I think I’ll apply for them after all.