SKYCTC hosts 'FAFSA Funday' to help with financial aid applications
"Financial Aid staff of Southcentral Kentucky Community & Technical College celebrate St. Patrick's Day while providing valuable assistance to over 60 families during the second 'FAFSA Funday.' Pictured from left: (first row) Jennifer Noble, Holly Basham, Samantha Endicott, (second row) Esther Muang, Cindy Burnette, Lois Tidwell, Amanda Tinsley, Christine Craddock, and Gail Barbour."
by Sarah Phipps - WBKO TV
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (WBKO) - With new changes and a later start date, FAFSA applications have the potential to be more stressful this year compared to years past. That is why Southcentral Kentucky Community & Technical College is providing support for students and their families. They held their second “FAFSA Funday” event on Sunday.
Passed at the end of 2020, the federal student aid website described the FAFSA Simplification ACT as “a significant overhaul of the processes and systems used to award federal student aid.”
“It has not only changed the application and the makeup, the question that students and parents are asked,” said Southcentral Kentucky Community & Technical College Interim Financial Aid Director Cindy Burnette. “There’s also changes in how we will determine what students qualify to receive. So there’s probably the most significant changes that the industry has seen in almost 40 years.”
While SKYCTC does offer regular financial aid help, Burnette said providing help after these changes were made is crucial for student comfort, leading to “FAFSA Fundays.”
The event, a collaboration between the college and Kentucky Higher Education Assistance Authority, pairs FAFSA applicants with advisors to help guide them through the application process.
“Sometimes the students get hung up on a question or something, then they might just abandon and not finish submitting it, so we like to help them with that,” Burnette said. “We want to make sure that when they leave here, that either we’ve answered all their questions, or we at least got them to the next point where we can help them finish before they start school.”
Incoming sophomore Aliyah Perrin, who visited the Funday event for help, said she greatly appreciates this help.
“I know last year I went to a different college, it was a bigger university. I’m not going to say the name, but it was really like, ‘you pass, you fail, we don’t care,’” she said. “Here it’s like, ‘we want you to pass, we want you to do good.’”
Perrin said she can be very headstrong but encourages everyone to reach out for help, for the sake of their education and wallet.
“I’m very prideful and I don’t like asking for help, but ask for help because it helps you in the long run,” Perrin said. “If you have to take out loans, you won’t have to take out as much and you could pay it off.”
Burnette said the college offers aid help for all students, regardless of if they attend SKYCTC or not. For more information on the college’s resources, visit their website.
The federal deadline to submit the 2024–25 FAFSA form will be June 30, 2025.
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