FAFSA Challenge Winner: Leadership Academy for Young Men (Rochester City School District)

Jul 31, 2019 | Blog

Rochester’s Leadership Academy for Young Men encourages students to complete the FAFSA by advertising and promoting FAFSA workshops hosted by the Rochester College Access Network (RCAN).

The school gets the word out to students and families using robocalls, Google Classroom, a Facebook page for seniors, and during assemblies. Leadership Academy also hosted its own FAFSA completion event in partnership with RCAN.

In addition, the school received support from community partners including Pathways to Justice, the Hillside Work Scholarship Program, and Upward Bound.

Onajae, who will receive the FAFSA Challenge scholarship, is a student who staff at Leadership Academy describe as an “outstanding senior.” He plans to attend Buffalo State College and study sports management.

Onajae has played basketball all four years of high school, including playing on the Varsity team starting in 10th grade. He has also participated in the AAU basketball league for the past 3 years.

In addition to his participation in sports, Onajae has taken several Advanced Placement courses and been recognized on the Honor Roll several times. He has also earned multiple excellent attendance awards and participates in Pathways to Justice through the Urban League of Rochester, the Hillside Work Scholarship Program, and JROTC.

Along with these activities, Onajae is interested in making music and enjoys playing video games.

The school won the Challenge for having the most improvement among high schools with less than 100 seniors in the Big 4 school districts.

The Challenge was part of The New York FAFSA Completion Project, a statewide campaign launched by Ed Trust–NY to encourage public high schools to increase the proportion of eligible low-income students who complete the FAFSA.

Explore data for each high school in the state, read more about FAFSA completion strategies being used at New York schools, and find additional resources at NYFAFSAChallenge.org.