After a couple months of absence for the birth and first few months of her new baby girl – named Hadley, college and career adviser Sarah Simmons is back to help  Akins students.

Jessica Enyioha, who worked as the campus college adviser in Simmons absence, will continue working at Akins for the rest of the year three days a week.

“I’m just trying to motivate students to get their applications and FAFSAS done so they can be successful in college”, she said.

Lily Dones, also  assisting students in Simmons’ absence, is a member of Advise Texas, a non-profit organization that places recent college graduates in high schools to help promote a college going culture. While Simmons was gone from mid-September to January 5, 484 seniors focused on completing their college applications, and that’s just what her target area is.

“I was lucky to have these people here to help get college applications done,”  Simmons said.

Now that Simmons is back, she plans on focusing on assisting seniors with their Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), and the Texas Application Student Financial Aid (TAFSA). She will visit senior English classes from February 17-27 to do this.

She also plans to visit junior English classes in April and May to introduce them to college application process

If seniors have not applied for a college yet, they should attend upcoming visits from college representatives in the College and Career Center.  Then, they should visit a college.

“A good day to (visit a college campus) would be February 16, because that’s a staff development day,” Simmons said.

On Jan. 30 parents visited the library to learn about the financial aid process during an event known as “Brown Bag Lunch.”

In the library on Saturday March 7, anyone can come to learn about FAFSA and TAFSA.

The info below is good for an info box or a bulleted list.

In order to complete a FAFSA, students need:

• a copy of their (and/or parents’) completed tax return for 2014
• W-2 forms for parents who submitted taxes “Married, filing jointly”
• to know his/her permanent address, know his/her Social Security number
• to know his/her parent’s birthdays
• to know the exact dates his/her parents were married or divorced