Don’t let money problems keep you from going to school and furthering your education. Many programs are available at Palo Alto to help students, such as scholarships, work-study, student loans and Pell Grants.

A good website for district scholarships is www.accd.edu/district/schships. Also, Palo Alto has its own full-time scholarship coordinator, Carmen Velasquez, who may be found in AT 218. Velasquez will help you identify scholarships and apply for them. Her e-mail is cvelasquez@mail.accd.edu.

Another opportunity is work-study, which consists of working at school to help pay for tuition and/or living expenses. Students who are eligible for work-study are paid $7.25 an hour. The qualifications for work-study depend on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. Students should inquire about work-study in the Student Financial Services Office on the second floor of the AT building.

Student loans are also helpful when trying to get through school. You may take out student loans at any time, but you have to go through the SFS office to be processed. You may receive a few thousand dollars a year to put toward school and living expenses.

Pell Grants, also known as Financial Aid, help pay for school, as well. In 2007-2008, Palo Alto gave out $10,464,963 to eligible Palo Alto students.

"About 60 percent of students are eligible to receive the grants here at Palo Alto," said Lamar Duarte, director of Palo Alto’s Student Financial Services.

You may apply for Pell Grants on the Internet by filling out a FAFSA at www.fafsa.ed.gov. After one year, you will have to renew your FAFSA application.

"This semester was my first time using the FAFSA website, and I found it to be very easy. I got my results in a few weeks," said Josh Delger, a freshman Computer Science major.

Once the application is complete, it takes about four weeks for the student information to download into the school’s database. SFS then determines which students are eligible for the awards.

If no corrections are needed, it will take two more weeks for the application to be processed and the student to be awarded. If corrections need to be made, then it will take an additional two weeks.

"For the most part, Pell Grant entitlements are contingent on meeting satisfactory academic progress requirements," said Dr. Adolfo R. “Sonny” Barrera, vice president of Student Affairs. "It’s up to the Financial Aid Director to weigh in on extending eligibility on an individual basis."

Ellen Nystrom, associate director of Financial Aid at the University of Texas Health Science Center, said that as long as students are making "satisfactory academic progress," Financial Aid will continue. Students whose total number of hours exceeds 150 percent of their degree plan will no longer be awarded. For students who are obtaining an associate’s degree, that number is 90 hours. For a bachelor’s degree, that number is 180 hours.

"I have been coming to school for the past three semesters on Pell Grants," said Maria Hernandez, a sophomore Psychology major. "I have not had to pay out of my pocket for school, and the amount I got even helped me pay for my books. It was the smartest thing I did. I am so glad I applied for Financial Aid."