Volume 4, Issue 2

Its time to FINALIZE!

Spring 2016

Its finally your year!

Youve got just a few
short months until you
are walking across that
stage and receiving
your diploma. Time is
flying! At this point in
the year, you may have
some unanswered questions: Where am I going to college? What
classes will I take?
What is my major going to be? The biggest
question of all is most
likely: How am I going
to pay for it!? Have no

fear! The School Counseling Office has several

ways to help you finalize
your plans! In this issue,
youre going to find information about Bright
Futures, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid and general information to help you
plan out the rest of your
senior year. Take some
time to read this information. As always, if you
have questions, see your
counselor. We are here to
help!

Class of 2016

MARK YOUR CALENDARS

Financial Aid Night
January 25, 2016
6pm
Location: Cafeteria
Beacon Financial Aid Workshop
February 17-18, 2016
Location:

Turn in Scholarship Documentation!!!

If you have received a
scholarship award letter,
please turn in a copy of the
letter to your Arts Director.
Even if you do not plan on
accepting the money or
going to that specific
school, please

Turning in a copy of the

correspondence, letter is
a graduation requirement.
In addition we will highlight your achievement
during our awards ceremony, as well as looking

TURN IT IN!
Inside this issue:

to get an accurate total

count for the Class of 2016!

Senior Exit Survey:

Will begin during the third
week of February completed through Naviance.
Please try to retrieve your
password beforehand

Spring Senior Points to Ponder

Bright Futures Information

Getting your BF money

FAFSFA Information

FAFSA Help

What is your Plan B?

How to apply for federal aid

Have you applied for Bright Futures?

How to request transcripts!

Scholarship Web Site Searches

Have you confirmed with a college yet?

Keep aiming for that dream school! Stay
focused!

Have you submitted your FAFSA?

Bright Futures Facts and InformationREAD ME!

Fun Facts about Bright Futures

IMPORTANT INFROMATION

YesFUN!
1.

Funded through Lottery dollars

2.

Community service hours are required

for all 3 award levels

3.

Merit based NOT financial need

4.

To maintain Bright Futures in college,

students must meet GPA and minimum credit hour requirements

5.

If you have already applied for

Bright Futures, you can check your
award status at floridastudentfinancialaid.org. If you need to apply
and need directions, go to:

douglasandersonguidance.blogspot.com

The district uploads your information twice. Once in February* and

once in June

Your application for Bright Futures is for various grants and scholarships, not just Bright Futures.

The monetary amount you receive from Bright Futures is based on

a fixed cost per credit hour. See table below.

Students MUST APPLY BEFORE GRADUATION! If you havent

already, go to Floridastudentfinancialaid.org! Apply NOW! All
your friends are doing it!

Students have up to 2 years to access if they return to Florida from

an out of state school and have maintained the eligibility GPA.

*Lock in to Bright Futures before February!

If you meet the GPA, SAT/ACT & community service requirements now you can lock in your scholarship.
(Bright Futures GPA can be found on your flvc.org account)
The next transmission from district to Bright Futures begins in February. This is when district uploads your
GPA, SAT/ACT scores and community service hours for Bright Futures. If you are holding on to community
service hours turn them in to the School Counseling office as soon as possible!
Please note: If you are not eligible now, you should still apply NOW and you will have until the end of 4th
quarter to earn a qualifying GPA and the community service hours. You also have up until and including the

Getting Your Bright Futures Money

The Florida Department of Education will:
Begin funding your scholarship during the fall term following your high school graduation. The academic
year begins in the fall and ends in the summer. Scholarship recipients are not eligible for funding during
the summer term immediately following high school graduation. Summer disbursements are only made if
funds are available. Check the website each year for summer funding information.
Then, they will send the funds to the eligible Florida postsecondary institution of your choice prior to the
beginning of each term. The money will then be applied to your account after the last day of the drop/add
period at your postsecondary institution.
Page 2

C L A S S O F 20 1 6

Free Application for Federal Student Aid

Do you need money for College???
FAFSA
What is federal student aid?
Federal student aid comes from the federal governmentspecifically, the U.S. Department of Education. Its
money that helps a student pay for higher education expenses (college, career school or graduate school expenses). This aid covers expenses such as: tuition, fees, room and board, books and supplies, and transportation.
What kind of aid is available?

There are three main categories of federal student aid: grants, work-study, and loans.
Who gets federal student aid?
The most basic eligibility requirements are that you must:
Demonstrate financial need, be a US citizen, have a valid SSN, register with the selective service (males between age 18-25), maintain satisfactory academic progress in college/career school, and show that youre
qualified to obtain a college or career school education by having a high school diploma, GED or completing
a high school education in a home school setting approved under state law

How do I apply for federal student aid?

1. Complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) at www.fafsa.ed.gov. Need
help? Attend one of the following:
-College Goal Sunday at the FSCJ Downtown Campus February 21, 2016 from 1:00 4:00 PM.
2. Review your Student Aid Report (SAR) After you apply, youll r eceive a Student Aid Repor t or
SAR. Your SAR contains the information reported on your FAFSA and usually includes your Expected
Family Contribution (EFC). The EFC is the number used to determine your eligibility for federal student aid. Review your SAR information and make any corrections or changes, if necessary. The
school(s) you list on your FAFSA will get your SAR data electronically.
3. Contact the schools you might attend. Make sur e that the financial aid office at each school
youre interested in has all the information needed to determine your eligibility. If youre eligible, each
schools financial aid office will send you an award letter showing the amount and types of aid (from
all sources) that the school will offer you. At this point, compare the award letters from the schools
where you applied and see what aid you can receive from each school.

NEED HELP?
StudentAid.gov

1800-4-FED-AID (1800-433-3243)

A college financial aid office

1800-730-8913 (toll free for hearing impaired)

studentaid@ed.gov
VOLUME 4, ISSUE 2

Page 3

Your School Counselors

KATHY MORTENSEN-ANDERSON
School Counselor, A Gi Grades 9-12, ext. 119
mortensenk@duvalschools.org
School Counseling Department Chair
Douglas Anderson School of the Arts
2445 San Diego Road
Jacksonville, FL

BROOKE RIMONDI
School Counselor, Gl-O Grades 9-12, ext. 117
rimondib@duvalschools.org

Phone: 904-346-5620

SHANEKA FERRELL
School Counselor, P-Z Grades 9-12, ext. 116
ferrells1@duvalschools.org

Where Art and Academics meet in

excellence!

DAYLE MACK
School Counseling Clerk, ext. 191
mackd@duvalschools.org

Follow our Blog!

LORETTA NICHOLSON
School Counseling Clerk, ext. 191
nicholsonl@duvalschools.org

douglasandersonguidance.blogspot.
com/

How do I request transcripts?

All r equests go thr ough the Guidance
Office! The process is slightly different
depending on where your transcripts are
going check out the steps below so
youre in the know!
Request for transcripts to be sent to a
FLORIDA Public College/University:

Guidance Clerks will send transcripts electronically at no cost to

you
The college will process your transcripts which can take up to 3-4
weeks. Electronic does not mean
instant. *THINK ABOUT YOUR
DEADLINES*
The college will post it on your application screen. Always follow up
with the college to make sure they
have received your documents!

Request a transcript to go to any other

College/University:

Looking for a scholarship? Check

out these web site database searches!

Request from the School Counseling

office the number of transcripts that
you need

www.zinch.com

Pick up your transcripts from School

Counseling office. The first three are
FREE. Each one after that is
$2.00.

www.duvalschools.org/scholarships

Personally mail them off.

www.scholarships.com

FINAL TRANSCRIPT REQUESTS: www.scholarshipmonkey.com

You will receive a form in your Eng- www.douglasandersonguidance.blogspot.com
lish Classmore details coming!
www.douglasandersonseniors2016.blogspot.

www.fastweb.com
www.collegeboard.com
www.collegenet.com

Com
Career and College Search Tools
Naviance
www.bigfuture.collegeboard.com
www.floridashines.org

Want to see reviews on these web sites?

Check out this link for more info!
www.usnews.com/education/blog