When educators from around the nation meet Oct. 21 for First Lady Michelle Obama’s Reach Higher Initiative conference in Washington, D.C., Lisa Roberts, ASPIRE Coordinator at Hood River Valley High School, will be among them.
And if that wasn’t cool enough, Roberts was selected for the honor by Obama herself.
Roberts was one of two ASPIRE coordinators/high school college advisors in Oregon nominated by Office of Student Access and Completion (OSAC) ASPIRE and Outreach Administrator Lori Ellis — without her knowledge — with whom she will be attending the conference.
“I got an email in August that said … ‘here’s something that’s going on with Reach Higher, Michelle Obama’s initiative, and we’ve nominated you, and we’ll keep our fingers crossed and we’ll see if you get it,’” Roberts said. “A couple of weeks later, I got the email from Greg Darnieder (U.S. Secretary Education’s senior advisor on the College Access Initiative) inviting me to a daylong White House summit.
Roberts has 30 volunteer mentors this year, but is looking for more. For information on how to become an ASPIRE volunteer, contact Roberts at 541-387-5034 extension 3, or email at lisa.roberts@hood....
“I almost fell out of my chair.”
ASPIRE — which stands for Access to Student Assistance Program in Reach of Everyone — is a free mentoring program that encourages students to continue their training and education beyond high school, with resources and volunteers to help find the financing needed to do so. Students apply not only for financial aid, but for low-interest loans, grants, and school and community scholarships.
The Reach Higher initiative “is the First Lady’s effort to inspire every student in America to take charge of their future by completing their education past high school, whether at a professional training program, a community college, or a four-year college or university,” according to the Reach Higher website (www.whitehouse.gov/reach-higher), with the goal of increasing the country’s college graduate rate to the highest in the world by 2020.
Ellis nominated Roberts and the HRVHS ASPIRE program because “of the amount of time we’ve been here,” said Roberts, “the longevity of the program, how established it is.” The program is in its 13th year.
Roberts tells her students, “We want you to aspire to something after high school whatever it is — four year, two year, trade, military, gap year then going — we want you to do something with additional training.
“This whole program was to get kids to complete the application correctly, so if money is available they can go to school and get a degree, and contribute and meet the needs of what the future employment picture will look like,” she added.
The Reach Higher Initiative helped in that mission with the first-time release of names of students who had completed a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) application.
“This report was so beneficial because if you can track the information, you can improve the information,” she said. “In the past, we didn’t see any names; we’d have to take a school roster and ask the kids (if they’d filled out a student aid form). Sometimes they don’t tell you the truth, but with this report, I can say, ‘Do you need some help? Let’s figure out what’s wrong.’ It’s really a one-on-one process. That’s why it works here — because it’s one-on-one.
“I think Reach Higher realizes the one-on-one mentoring that OSAC/ASPIRE provides is effective in getting the results they want, starting with the lower income and first generation students.
“I also think it works because I have mentors who work hard to get (students) to complete their financial aid application and all other documents correctly,” Roberts said. “We do what it takes to get it done — we don’t give up on them. Last year, we had over 65 percent of our students complete their FAFSA application, which is one of the highest percentages in the State of Oregon.”
In Washington, D.C., Roberts will meet with other educators to discuss programs like APSIRE. Only seven states will be represented on five different panels, with Oregon on two.
“That’s huge for Oregon,” said Roberts. “They’re looking at the program that (Ellis) runs and saying, ‘Wow, look how well it works here in Oregon, where else can we implement it?’ Lori will be representing Oregon and sitting on the panels. I’ll be there watching the process and meeting people, and they can ask us questions.”
And will the First Lady also be there?
“She’s supposed to be!” said Roberts. “It’s her initiative and it’s an all-day event. It’s a big deal.”
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