by Julia Park / April 15, 2024
This year it took college sophomore Athaliah P.S. Ioane 20 minutes to fill out the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid). In her senior year of high school, it took her three months. A first-generation college student at Whitworth University in Spokane, Ioane remembers how difficult it was to fill out the FAFSA for the first time.
“I honestly couldn’t find that one high school counselor or teacher who would stop discouraging me from going to college,” Ioane said about her time at Washington High School in Parkland, a suburb of Tacoma. “I actually had a lot of teachers who told me, you know, maybe you should think about taking a gap year or doing something else.”
Thanks to the Washington College Grant and the Federal Pell Grant, Ioane has been able to access higher education. Submitting the FAFSA also helped her apply for and be awarded a scholarship through the Act Six program, which aims to help grow students as leaders who can build their communities by getting a college education.