Business is booming for colleges and universities in the CSRA and beyond! Next week, downtown Augusta will host a crowd of around 500 with an estimated economic impact of about $62,000. It’s an annual event that showcases post-secondary options for students.
CSRA College Night, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy and Savannah River Site, is set for Thurs., Sept. 12, from 5-8:00 p.m. Although traditionally held at the James Brown Arena for more than 30 years, construction of the new arena necessitated a move to the Augusta Convention Center, next to the Augusta Marriott Hotel.
“We have a little over 100 colleges and universities that are registered to attend the event,” Cindy Hewitt with SRNS Education Outreach told ABD. “We will have four seminars set up. We’ll have a seminar for South Carolina financial aid. We’ll have a seminar for Georgia financial aid. We will have a seminar for SRS apprenticeship, and we will have a seminar for financial literacy.”
Hewitt said there will be counselors who can guide students and parents through applying for colleges and possible scholarship opportunities.
“I think it’s so well received because it provides so much information that you can’t receive going online and looking at just that one individual university,” she said. “We have such a great mix of different universities and colleges there, from across the United States. We also have a military that’s there. We’ll have some technical schools that are there. So, the evening is beneficial because there’s so much information that a student and a parent could get just going from table to table.”
Every senior who attends can put their name into a drawing for a $1,000 scholarship. Fifteen scholarships will be awarded. The senior must be present to register, but need not be there for the drawing. Since it began, more than $300,000 in scholarships have been awarded to students who have attended previous CSRA College Nights.
Returning this year will be StriveScan, a program that allows students to scan a college’s barcode, and information about that college will be transferred to their phone.
“So, they’ve already started a communication with the university that they’re interested in attending,” she said. “We’re hoping that it’ll be very beneficial to both the student and the parents. You won’t need any paper. And then, when that student goes home that night, they go into StriveScan, and they can download all the information that they received from each of the universities that they spoke with.”
The Counseling Center will offer advice on a wide range of topics, including ways to cut the cost of college, five reasons to attend a historically Black college or university, a campus visit checklist, and college planning for 9th and 10th-grade students.
“Don’t wait till you’re a senior in high school. Start attending this event when you’re in ninth grade, because just being in the presence of the representatives can make you think this college thing might be for me, or technical school might be for me,” Hewitt said. “Just face to face, in that presence, getting that feel, maybe helping you with that fear factor that you have, maybe see that it’s not as intimidating, and it is doable.”
College Night is free to attend, and free parking will be provided.
For more information, visit www.srs.gov/general/outreach/edoutrch/coll_night.htm
