News & Events

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College & Career Resources

Resources for High School Students – Financial Aid, College Admissions, and More

A high level of uncertainty is unsettling, but doesn’t mean there aren’t options. High school seniors, especially, are wondering what’s next. There are questions like, what if I can’t attend college out-of-state next year, and what if my family’s finances have changed since I applied? For juniors, there are concerns about standardized testing, and what post-high school plan makes the most sense. There are resources available to help students and their families navigate each of these important topics.

Posted by Caroline Ridgway
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College & Career Resources

Introducing a Free, Online FAFSA Tutorial

This video tutorial helps walk high school students and their families through the step-by-step process of completing a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) application. Each year, FAFSA applications open on October 1. Students are encouraged to submit as soon as possible for the greatest access to available financial aid and scholarships. Students and their families may view this free, online tutorial as many times as needed.

Posted by Caroline Ridgway
College & Career Early Learning News Resources

Collier County Public Schools eLearns!

Collier County County Public Schools (CCPS) is committed to supporting children and families in continuous learning. When the schools are closed for any reason, CCPS encourages parents and caregivers to have students engage in academic activities with a structured schedule. As such, the CCPS Curriculum and Instruction Division has developed lessons and resources to ensure learning is continuous.

Posted by Kristin Peras
College & Career Early Learning News Success Stories

Guadalupe Center: Creating Possibilities Through Future Ready Collier

A partner organization since Future Ready Collier’s founding, the Guadalupe Center has a 35-year history of, as their organizational mission decrees, using educational opportunity to help break the cycle of poverty for the children of Immokalee. Currently, Guadalupe is heavily involved in Future Ready Collier (FRC), intentionally encouraging and enabling their leadership and staff at all levels to support the initiative.

Posted by Kristin Peras
Early Learning News Resources

Learning Together: A CDA Pilot Project

Future Ready Collier partner organizations, with pilot funding from the Early Learning Coalition, have embarked on an initiative to facilitate a better completion rate among candidates for Child Development Associate (CDA) certification. The preferred minimum credential for employment among early childhood educators is a CDA paired with a two-year degree. Stakeholders are proactively enabling candidates who have completed all CDA coursework to finalize their portfolio and undergo structured assessment to earn the certification. This effort coincides with goals to increase rates of achievement of Associate’s and Bachelor’s degrees, to ensure a more robust pipeline of educators equipped to meet existing student need. Collaborators agree this is a both practical and valuable means of helping teachers, schools, and students alike.

Posted by Kristin Peras
News Success Stories

Grace Place: Building Trust Through Future Ready Collier

Tim Ferguson is respected throughout Collier County for his bold leadership of Grace Place, successfully steering the organization through a substantial capital campaign and major campus expansion, and shepherding its mission to raise up communities through collective engagement, literacy, and educational opportunity. With characteristic confidence, Tim, an early supporter of Future Ready Collier, offers as an observation that we are “on the threshold of collective impact becoming the way we do business in Collier County.” Grace Place, under Tim’s thoughtful watch, has been an instrumental player in Future Ready Collier since its inception. Counting more than 60 partner organizations, Future Ready Collier is enabling individual organizations to combine efforts, resources, and ideas to generate real results for Collier County’s educational system.

Posted by Kristin Peras