The third-annual Adult College Completion Fair, dubbed “Revisiting the Dream: College Access and Completion for All,” will be held 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. April 1 at One Judiciary Square, 441 Fourth Street NW. The Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) is organizing the fair. Officials of the agency said they are expecting about 500 people to attend.
The focus of the fair will be on budgeting and financing an education. As such, the fair will offer college advising, career assistance and workshops on financial aid and navigating the college admissions process as a new or returning student. “We just want our adult learners to be empowered and to be knowledgeable,” said Tiffany DeJesus, program manager for college and career readiness postsecondary education, with OSSE.
Attendees will have an opportunity to visit representatives from nearly a dozen colleges and universities that focus on adult learners. They include Prince George’s Community College, George Mason University, University of the District of Columbia, and Georgetown University’s School of Continuing Studies.
Adult learners can also get advice from local groups specializing in postsecondary resources, the federal student aid process, tuition assistance, and in preparing them for community college. Limited information on masters’ degree programs will be available as well.
By 2020, 76 percent of all jobs in the District will require post-secondary education, according to the Georgetown University Center on Education. That statistic, DeJesus indicated, is driving the fair.
A survey DeJesus conducted with about 400 District residents found 80 percent of them had some college credit, but had not finish their degrees. Most of those adults were D.C. tuition assistance grantees who failed to complete the application process for the grants, she said.
For Reginald Black, it’s personal. He has served on the Adult College Completion Initiative since its inception, joining when he was a college/career navigator at Academy of Hope Public Adult Charter School. Two years ago, Black pushed the D.C. City Council to fund adult learners, and was floored when he a city council member told him 65,000 adults living in the District don’t have high school diplomas.
“I said to myself, ‘Wow, it’s crazy to me that there are so many people living in the nation’s capital who don’t have a high school diploma,’ and so the question becomes ‘How do you support yourself?’” Black asked.
Since then, Black, now a recruiter at Trinity Washington University’s graduate school of business, has made it his priority to support the fair. “It doesn’t matter what I do in my occupation,” he said. “I’ll be there to make sure the fair goes off with a bang.” According to the American Community Survey, 100,268 District residents’ highest level of educational attainment is a high school diploma or equivalent.
Adults can run into several obstacles that keep them from completing their degree, DeJesus said. Issues range from the inability to afford school, to work-life balance issues, to working longer hours so they can keep living in the District as it gentrifies.
Affordability is a key issue, she said. Sometimes adults register to attend for-profit universities thinking they’re a “quick fix” but those institutions may not have been accredited — meaning their credits won’t transfer — and are often expensive.
Some adults pursue an education and take out loans they are unable to pay back. If students are unable to finish paying for their education, the learning institution typically holds the transcript or refuses to transfer credits to another school, DeJesus said. “It’s more than just being in debt with federal student aid,” DeJesus said. “It’s more so having the balance so they’re able to pay.”
Many adult learners need flexibility in programming, such as night or weekend courses, or the ability to take one-to-two classes at a time so they can work and/or look after their children. Supporting these learners now will strengthen the local economy and workforce in the future, DeJesus said.