Hector Torres’s world was shattered when he learned his 29-year-old son had died. The former Marine and avid runner was driving home from work when he fell asleep at the wheel and crashed. The loss sent Hector into a grief spiral as he abandoned his life as a truck driver in Connecticut to wander the streets of New York City without a home.
“In the process of losing my son, I lost reality,” Torres says. “For about a month, I was wandering the city not knowing where I was at.”
Ten months later, Torres began to piece his life back together. While residing in the New York City Rescue Mission, Torres became a member of Back on My Feet, a nonprofit that combats homelessness through running programs. Founded in 2007, the organization works with shelters in 12 cities nationwide to recruit members interested in changing their lives for the better. Teams meet three times a week at 5:45 a.m., and members who maintain at least a 90 percent attendance record for the first 30 days become eligible for job training, financial aid and other life-building opportunities.
“Nobody runs alone,” says executive director Terence Gerchberg. “The point of this group is not to outrun somebody; it’s to uplift somebody. It’s meeting people where they are.”
Watch the video above to see how running transformed Torres’s life.
Tag: financial aid
When Death or Disability Threatens the Possibility of Attending College, This Organization Steps In
With the start of the new school year, many high school seniors are taking those first steps towards college. Between attending SAT prep classes, taking the actual SAT, making college visits and doing general schoolwork, many are also thinking about the looming stress of financial aid.
And while college is hard enough to afford for most families, affordability is an even bigger problem for the children of deceased or wounded veterans. As of January 2014, 85 percent of the more than 1.4 million children of deceased or wounded veterans weren’t eligible for federal financial assistance.
That’s where Folds of Honor steps in. Since 2007, this nonprofit has been offering scholarships to children of disabled or deceased service members. All children in such families are guaranteed a scholarship — no matter the number or cost.
This all started back when Major Dan Rooney attended the funeral of one of his fellow servicemen, Corporal Brock Burkin. As the family received the body of Burkin, Rooney saw their grief and suffering, along with a void that needed to be filled. So, in between his second and third tours in Iraq, he started Folds of Honor, with Burkin’s son, Jacob, as the first recipient.
The organization has only grown from there. In its seven years of existence, Folds of Honor has granted 7,500 scholarships. In 2014 alone, 2,050 awards totaling $10 million were given.
In addition to being a former F-16 pilot with the Oklahoma Air National Guard, Rooney is also a PGA professional and USGA member. Due to these connections, Folds of Honor tees off across the country to fundraise. Thanks to a partnership with the PGA and USGA, an annual Patriots Golf Day tournament is held every year.
Throughout Labor Day weekend, golfers can add an extra dollar to their green fees that will be donated straight to the nonprofit. With 5,200 golf courses registered across the country, there are ample opportunities to participate.
And what a lucrative endeavor it is. In 2013, $5 million was raised for the organization during the weekend.
While Folds of Honor can’t replace the loss of these families, it can at least provide the children with an opportunity for a better life.
For Kylie Nemecek whose dreams of attending USC were threatened, Folds of Honor is making them a reality.
“Without it I probably wouldn’t be where I am today fulfilling my dream and forever I’ll be grateful for that,” Nemecek tells WLTX 19.
MORE: A Small Island That Makes a Big Difference for America’s Veterans
Millions of College Students Lose Out on Financial Aid Because of the FAFSA. Here Are 4 Solutions
We’ve all heard the news reports about the massive amounts of debt that college graduates leave school with. (On average, each student owes $29,400.)
Which makes the FAFSA (short for Free Application for Federal Student Aid), the form that helps students get funding for college, more important than ever. But there are major hurdles in completing it: It’s complicated, boring, and many students and their parents don’t even know about it.
Because of these reasons, millions of low- and middle-income students don’t fill it out each academic year — meaning that they’re missing out on grants, loans and work-study programs. It also might mean they skip college altogether because they think it’s unaffordable.
MORE: Delaware Pushes to Get More Low-Income Students Enrolled in Higher Education
But it’s crucial for all students to complete their FAFSA. As NPR reports, “Research shows that many of the students who don’t fill out the form would be eligible to go to college at a cost of next to nothing if they did.”
So how do we make the FAFSA more accessible?
1. Make the form shorter and simpler. Some lawmakers have proposed that the FAFSA can be condensed into two pieces of information: their family size and household income two years prior. This form will come in the handy-dandy size of a postcard.
2. Bombard them with text reminders. The sky is blue, the grass is green, teens like to text. According to NPR, University of Virginia researchers found that when high school seniors were texted about finishing their FAFSA, they were 5 to 8 percent more likely to enroll into a two-year institution compared with seniors who didn’t get the texts. Another study found that when community college freshmen received the reminders, they were 12 percent more likely to fill out the form for sophomore year.
3. Streamline FAFSA with federal tax returns. It’s an idea that would cut out the complications of filing a FAFSA altogether since a student’s financial aid eligibility would be indicated by their family’s tax return, according to the Hechinger Report. There’s also the suggestion to reserve Pell Grants for families below 150 percent of the federal poverty level (about $35,000 for a family of four), with smaller grants for families between 150 and 250 percent (almost $59,000 for a family of four), the report stated.
4. Check up on them. This is a plan proposed by the Commander in Chief himself. President Obama wants to launch an online FAFSA completion tool that helps high schools verify whether students have completed the form or not (and then nudge them to finish it). There’s already a similar tool, where anyone can see the overall rates of FAFSA completion at various high schools nationwide.
DON’T MISS: Ask the Experts: How Can We Keep From Drowning in College Debt?