Mentors Won’t Help Tennessee Promise Students With Financial Aid Forms Anymore

Note: This story has been updated to clarify the mentors’ role last year.

In the state’s second year of offering free community college to graduating high school seniors, it’s changing the way it’s helping students apply for financial aid.

Volunteer community members, known as mentors, will no longer be helping Tennessee Promise students navigate the complex form known as FAFSA. Reminding students about FAFSA deadlines and directing them to workshops had been some of the mentors’ main tasks. 

This past year, volunteer mentors were paired with all 58,000 students who applied to Tennessee Promise. But Graham Thomas, who organized the mentor program, says many students weren’t serious about going to community college. About a third of applicants had dropped out of Tennessee Promise by the time FAFSAs were due.

“We asked mentors to try to reach out to these students and try to work with them and they just weren’t responsive,” he says. 

So this year, instead of pairing every student who applies to Tennessee Promise with a mentor, they’ll wait until after financial aid forms are due and work with the remaining students. Thomas says the new timeline will use the mentors more effectively. 

“We’re trying to get them through a couple of hurdles to see if we can really identify and target students that want to take advantage of [Tennessee Promise].”

But the change worries Margot Fosnes, who worked with six students in Robertson County. Filling out the financial aid form is so difficult, she says, some students might just give up without this individual attention.

“For a couple of the girls that I mentored, they called me with specific questions,” she says. She even got a phone call from a parent. “I do think they were more comfortable calling somebody that they’ve met.”

Students will still get financial aid reminder emails from the state, and they can get help from high school counselors and community colleges, Thomas says.

“I think we are responsible for giving every student this opportunity,” he says. “But at some point they’ve got to meet the deadlines, they’ve got to show up and do the things that are required.”

The complexity of the FAFSA form continues to be part of a national conversation as well. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., has been pushing for legislation to make the long form less intimidating by condensing it down to two questions.