College &
Career
Success
Program
Access College Foundation’s College and Career Success Program is dedicated to helping our Scholars navigate through college, reach graduation, and gain job placement within their chosen field.
Throughout the year, our College and Career Success Advisors make several visits to nine Virginia college campuses as well as all four campuses of Tidewater Community College. At each visit, we provide our students with lists of outside scholarship opportunities, tips on how to survive college, and snacks/candy to help them make it through the day. Some of the topics we cover throughout the year are major/career exploration, mental self-care, financial management, email etiquette, and getting involved on campus, just to name a few. We also help our students file their FAFSAs prior to their school’s deadlines to ensure that they are eligible for financial aid. Most importantly, our College and Career Success Advisors serve as an added resource for our students; encouraging and supporting them throughout their college careers and beyond.
Access College Foundation’s College and Career Success Program provides direct services to Access Scholars attending George Mason University, Longwood University, Norfolk State University, Old Dominion University, Radford University, Regent University, Virginia Commonwealth University, Virginia State University, Virginia Wesleyan University, and the four campuses of Tidewater Community College. Advisors make visits to these campuses several times during the school year. Advisors also provide virtual advising services for students not attending one of the above colleges and universities.
The Access College and Career Success Program seeks to:
- Increase the graduation rate for Access Scholarship recipients.
- Increase the FAFSA renewal rate for Access Scholars.
- Increase awareness of existing college campus programs and services.
Since 2007, the Access College and Career Success Program has maintained a 90% retention rate and six-year graduation rates that are nearly 2x higher than the Virginia average.Our Scholars also graduate with less than half the amount of student loan debt than the national average.
Services include outreach efforts to link scholars to appropriate college personnel or programs, assistance in re-applying for financial aid, and completing the steps to renew the Access “Last Dollar” Scholarship.
How does the College and Career Success Program assist Access Scholars?
The Access College and Career Success Program helps students make the most of their college experience. To achieve this goal, we serve our Scholars by:
- Providing one-to-one counseling for academic, adjustment, financial, and personal issues
- Providing various career development tools and workshops to assist in the internship and post graduation job search
- Assisting Access Scholars in completing the FAFSA and Access “Last Dollar” scholarship application procedures.
- Maintaining consistent communication via e-mail, phone, and messaging to establish and maintain ongoing contact with Scholars.
- Acting as an advocate for students as issues arise regarding their college experience.
- Acting as a liaison with college departments to provide resource information to students.
- Consistently monitoring students’ academic achievement progress.