The Sallie Mae Fund^® sponsors Paying for College workshops and bus tours to educate families about the college admissions process.

These free, 90-minute workshops visit communities nationwide to educate high school students and their families about the value and affordability of college. The Sallie Mae Fund conducts over 150 workshops a year in English and Spanish.

The Paying for College workshops cover a wide range of topics, including:

• the benefits of continuing education beyond high school.
• the affordability of college due to the various types of financial aid (i.e., grants, scholarships, and loans).
• resources to help families prepare for the college admissions process.

Financial aid experts from local colleges are on hand to answer questions.

Helping Latino families capitalize on higher education opportunities

The Paying for College bus tour is The Sallie Mae Fund's second coast-to-coast campaign for Latino young adults. The tour unites financial aid professionals, community-based organizations, and educational institutions to change the status quo for Latinos in higher education.

Latino enrollment lagging

Latinos are the largest and the fastest-growing minority group in the United States. But Latino families are lagging behind other groups in higher education enrollment and graduation rates.

A Sallie Mae Fund study showed that knowledge of financial aid options is critically low in the Latino community and that this lack of knowledge has an immediate negative impact on higher education attendance.

Other noteworthy findings:

• Nearly half of Latino young adults and more than half of Latino parents were not aware of a single source of financial aid.
• Latino families prefer to learn about financial aid from in-person meetings or workshops.

Get Into and Pay for College national tour

Award-winning authors Gen and Kelly Tanabe travel across the country on their Get Into and Pay for College tour sponsored by Sallie Mae's CollegeAnswer.com. Here is just a small sample of what students and parents will learn from the workshop:

• How to choose the right college and create a powerful application.
• How to ace college and scholarship interviews.
• Where to find the best "free money": scholarships and grants.
• How to create a winning scholarship application.
• Why applying for financial aid is important.
• Why "borrower benefits" matter when choosing a student loan.