Daisy Gonzales, Ph.D., executive director of the California Student Aid Commission (CSAC), traveled to Allan Hancock College Sept. 30 for a wide-ranging discussion about financial aid for California students. Photo courtesy of Allan Hancock College .
SANTA MARIA — Educators, counselors, students and community advocates from across the Central Coast gathered at Allan Hancock College Sept. 30 for a conversation focused on expanding college access and helping students navigate financial aid.
Allan Hancock College and the Central Coast Cal-SOAP Consortium hosted Daisy Gonzales, Ph.D., executive director of the California Student Aid Commission (CSAC), for the event at Boyd Hall on Hancock’s Santa Maria campus.
The morning featured a roundtable discussion with Gonzales focused on how to make financial aid accessible, how to connect students with the financial aid resources they need to pay for college and more.
“We want to build a system that not only gives students access to financial aid, but supports them as well,” Gonzales said.
Gonzales brings more than two decades of experience in higher education and statewide fiscal policy. Before joining CSAC, she served as deputy chancellor and later acting and interim chancellor of the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office, where she helped oversee policies and resources supporting 116 colleges and 1.9 million students. She previously worked with the California Assembly Appropriations and Budget committees.
A first-generation college student and California community college alum, Gonzales has also drawn on her own educational journey throughout her career working to expand access to higher education. Hancock Superintendent/President Kevin G. Walthers, Ph.D. noted that much of the college’s student body are also first-generation college students, spoke about how financial support through programs like the Hancock Promise, which provides free tuition and fees for two years at AHC to local high school graduates, has helped expand educational opportunities for them.
“We make sure to put our students and our community first at Hancock,” Walthers said. “The path to a career or a four-year institution runs through our campus.”
The event was organized in partnership with the Central Coast Cal-SOAP Consortium, which works with schools, colleges and community partners to help students and families better understand college opportunities, financial aid and the steps needed to pursue higher education.
Hancock alum and Santa Maria City Councilmember Gloria Soto, who also spoke at the event, said she knew firsthand about the difference financial aid can make for a first -generation college student.
“I personally experienced what financial aid can make possible,” Soto said. “I didn’t grow up assuming that an education from a four-year institution would be available to me, but financial aid changed that and made it a reality.”
Following the morning conversation, CSAC hosted its Annual Statewide Financial Aid Workshop. The workshop provided area financial aid staff with important updates, policy changes, resources and training for professionals who help students and families navigate the financial aid process.
To learn more about CALSOAP and financial aid at Hancock, visithttps://www.hancockcollege.edu/calsoap/index.php.