College & Career

Summer Credit Recovery

At Cottonwood High School, school staff and partners coordinate summer credit recovery courses to help seniors stay on track to graduate. Jump Start hosts a program for refugee and English Language Learning students where they can participate in summer classes to make up for any they may have missed, while the afterschool program hosts credit recovery packet assistance for all other students. This, along with other initiatives, has helped increase the graduation rates by 5% between 2014 and 2018.

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FAFSA completion

Nationally 90% of high school seniors who complete FAFSA attend college directly after high school compared to 55% of non-completers. Utah has the 2nd lowest rate of FAFSA completion in the country. In partnership with Utah College Advising Corps and Utah Higher Education Assistance Authority, we work to increase the number of high school students completing FAFSA applications to recieve financial aid. The Postsecondary Readiness network hosts FAFSA completion events at our community schools and launched the First U Hafta FAFSA campaign, encouraging more students and families to complete the application.

Postsecondary Completion

To get more students to graduate from technical or traditional college, we work to tackle the barriers that stand in the way. This year United Way of Salt Lake will launch a pilot program where a 211 information specialist will be at the University of Utah one afternoon a week. Their role will be to connect students with providers that can supply the resources they need, such as government social services, rent assistance, and other basic needs support. This will allow them to focus on completing their education. Utah Valley University will have a similar program where all of their advisors will be trained in using the 211 database and a university-specific phone line will be created, focused on college resources.