USA Funds Grant Helps Fund College Planning Center in Downtown Phoenix

A new resource center in Phoenix will open its doors on June 10 with the goal of enhancing the college planning process for the city’s students and their families.

The College Depot will be a full service college planning destination for Phoenix youth and their family members. USA Funds^® has awarded a $50,000 grant to the Arizona Community Foundation to support the facility and its services.

Free services from the College Depot will include:

• Workshops for students and families on topics such as:
  • College readiness.
  • Financial aid. 
  • Scholarships. 
  • College applications. 
  • ACT and SAT test preparation. 
• One-on-one assistance with the college planning process.
• Appointments with university and community college counselors.

The center will offer many of the workshops and programming in Spanish as well.

The Burton Barr Central Library will be the site for the College Depot. Centrally located in Phoenix, the library is nationally recognized for its Teen Central Center — which attracts nearly 400 youth a day, many of whom are in the same target audience as that of the College Depot.

“The Teen Central Center is so popular with students in Phoenix, we will have a built-in audience,” says Judy Reno, director, College Depot. “When we designed the facility and the curriculum, we worked with teens to find out what they wanted and needed in a physical facility as well as what they needed to help them prepare for college. It truly is designed for teens by teens to meet their needs.”

Two College Depot/outreach advisers join Reno as the center’s full-time staff. Before the facility has even opened, the outreach coordinators have been working in the community to build excitement for the College Depot opening and bringing curriculum and programming to organizations such as the Boys & Girls Clubs of Metropolitan Phoenix.

“The students we have worked with are thrilled to have this resource that will soon be available to them,” says Reno. “The schools are excited as well because guidance counselors just don’t have the resources to meet with each and every student to help them make a plan. We are hoping to help fill that gap.”

The College Depot will feature use of Envictus Corp.’s Navigation 101, a Web-based college planning program that provides customized curricula and management of information for each student enrolled in the program. USA Funds has partnered with Envictus to bring Navigation 101 into select schools in a number of states, including Arizona. High schools use Navigation 101 in conjunction with a formal curriculum that uses specific learning objectives to guide students through the process of planning for college.

“We are pleased to partner with the Arizona Community Foundation on the College Depot,” says Kyle Malone, USA Funds manager, access and outreach. “This exciting endeavor has the potential to truly improve the college-going rates for Phoenix students — especially those who are low-income or first-generation students.”