Over the last four years, the Austin Chamber and its DTC70 school district partners (Austin, Hutto, Leander, Pflugerville, Round Rock) have worked to achieve the goal of 70 percent direct to college enrollment rate. To do this, the Chamber organizes, recruits, and trains business volunteers to help support aid completion on area campuses, engages college access groups, and area colleges to help Austin area high school seniors and their parents fill out financial aid applications to help make college more affordable and cut down on student debt.

For the Class of 2018 so far we have hit the following Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) milestones leading up to the January 15^th Texas priority aid deadline:

• 7,080 FAFSA submissions for DTC70 Partners and a FAFSA filing rate of 53% for high school seniors
• The DTC70 Partnership boasts the highest FAFSA submission and completion rate in Texas leading up to the Texas priority aid filing deadline .
• 1,873 registrations and approximately 1,330 attendees at FAFSA events
• The financial impact of these filings on state, federal, and institutional aid is an estimated $72,392,400.

These outcomes are a great start to the year as we work to help families in Central Texas achieve greater prosperity.

We are grateful to all our school district partners above, Austin Community College, Concordia University, Cybertex, St. Edward’s University, Texas State University, Texas A&M University, Southwestern University, the University of Texas at Austin, AdviseTX, Breakthrough Austin, College Forward, Con Mi Madre, and Foundation Communities, who provided additional volunteers and worked with students on area campuses to help support aid completion. These partners joined business volunteers from A+ Federal Credit Union, Bank of America, Charles Schwab, KLRU, MicroSoft, St. David’s Foundation, University Federal Credit Union, Univision, Wells Fargo and many others who provide business volunteers or helped promote area events.

We are also grateful to C3 Presents ACL Fest and COTA, who helped provide incentives to students and counselors who achieved the best aid completion rates, attendance at area events, and helped promote aid completion on social media.

Ultimately, these efforts help families afford the higher education and training they need to find a good job, pay their bills, and help their families and our region prosper. Congratulations to the students, families, DTC70 partners, educators, counselors, and all of our volunteers who have helped make this possible.