1. education
2. high school

A s p e c i a l s u p p l e m e n t p r o d u c e d b y t h e S o u t h w e s t F l o r i d a C o m m u n i t y F o u n d a t i o n | n n n | F A L L 2 0 1 4
our
G I V I N G M AT T E R S
INSIDE:
n FutureMakers Par ticipants 2 n School-by-school FAFSA Completion 3 n The Financial Challenge 4 n
“Research shows a direct correlation between thriving cities and education beyond high
school. Increased attainment delivers stronger local economies, greater individual
earning power and better quality of life. Every community in America wants that, and
we’ve designed this work to give civic leaders the tools they need to be successful.”
—Jamie Merisotis
Sarah
OWEN
President & CEO,
Southwest Florida
Community Foundation
President & CEO, Lumina Foundation
COURTESY PHOTO
Better Together
FUTUREMAKERS
COALITION
CHANGES FUTURE FOR HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES
Lumina
Foundation
Spotlights
Southwest
Florida
participation, the Southwest Florida
A
REPORT TO THE COMMUNITY
_________________________________
Community Foundation and its FutureDuring the past year, the work of
Makers participants (who are recognized
FutureMakers in the Southwest Florida
in this report) will benefit from Lumina’s
region has gotten the attention of Lumicollaborative approach that connects us
na Foundation. An independent, private
to renowned national thought-leadership
foundation with $770 million in endoworganizations and provides technical and
ment, Lumina is committed to increasing planning assistance, data tools and flexthe proportion of Americans with highible funding as we customize our attainquality degrees, certificates and other
ment goals and plans.
credentials to 60 percent by 2025.
As the coordinator for regional
SEE LUMINA, 2 u
▲ Above are
FutureMakers
students, mentors and representatives of
The Foundation for Lee
County Public
Schools at
Cypress Lake
High School.
Students take their next big step
The graduating class of 2014 is just
getting settled into their first year out
of high school, parents’ “college weekends events” are over and transition
has officially begun. A year ago, recent
Southwest Florida high school graduates Niannia, Christine and twins Fritz
and Fritzlene thought they’d be standing on the sidelines watching friends
gleefully buying a bungee chair for the
dorm room, attending sports events,
and figuring out schedules for their biggest life-changing milestone.
But thanks to the regional Future-
Makers coalition, these newly minted
grads have joined the ranks of the
college class of 2018 or are attaining
postsecondary technical training after
securing financial aid and receiving
college and career prep from caring
mentors.
For Niannia, she’s spent the months
since high school getting acclimated to
college life at Florida State University.
Others in her high school class are have
furnished their dorm rooms, purchased
course books and are immersed in the life
of academia thanks to federal grants and
financial aid that are making the dream
of a postsecondary degree attainable for
more local students.
“We’re the first generation going to
college and being successful,” said Fritzlene, a smile broadening across her
pretty face as she and twin brother Fritz
talk about their next step after high
school. “That makes my mom really,
really proud.”
She’s attending Florida SouthWestern
State College (formerly Edison); he’s
traveling to Trinity College of Florida in
Tampa. —OC
If not you, then who? I was asked this
recently about our work in the Southwest
Florida region.
The SWFL Community Foundation,
once strictly a granting organization, has
evolved to that of a convener, leader and
change maker. And it’s working!
Last year we reviewed research of
community needs and chose a challenge
— and an opportunity. We invited others
in our community to explore this issue
with us and together we decided to do
something about it — access to education or training after high school. We
created an initiative and named it FutureMakers which focused on graduating
high school seniors in our five-county
area, the future of our region.
We invited partners in each county,
including The Foundation for Lee County Public Schools, Big Brother Big Sisters
of Sun Coast (Charlotte County), Career
Source (Hendry and Glades counties),
and The Education Foundation of Collier County – Champions for Learning to
work with us and together we designed
and executed a program to increase the
number of students accessing federal aid,
Pell grants and scholarships. And, we
had a hunch — if we worked together,
others would notice. They did.
Lumina Foundation, a national education foundation, invited us to be a longterm partner which will bring new funding and expert resources to our community. We invited others to help us shape
the partnership — a diverse group of
educators, business people, philanthropists, nonprofit and government leaders.
Lumina believes in our region and its
future because we are working together.
We are now launching a multi-year initiative with Lumina and scores of regional leaders, agencies and institutions that
will focus on post-secondary access and
attainment. But that’s not all. Others saw
what we were doing and wanted to partner as well. This year the Barbara Bush
Foundation for Family Literacy invited
us to develop a family literacy program
and the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation tapped us to help them with their
funding in Southwest Florida which will
infuse more than $250,000 in new dollars
into our region. This is in addition to all
the amazing work being done every single day by the nonprofits the Southwest
Florida Community Foundation is funding and working to support throughout
the year, thanks to our generous donors.
It works, when we work together…
—OC
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G I V I N G M AT T E R S
u LUMINA FROM PAGE 1
This is not a sprint. We are just beginning our journey as a region committed
to increasing college attendance and
graduation. It will take all of us and the
collective will of this community to
achieve our goals.
In just a year, the work of FutureMakers has been recognized by Lumina
Foundation, with the inclusion of the
Southwest Florida region in its community-based postsecondary education attainment strategy. The strategy
was designed to help communities and
regions dramatically increase the number of local residents with postsecondary credentials.
“We have always believed that when
our region works together to solve a
problem, we can achieve great results,”
said Sarah Owen, Southwest Florida
Community Foundation president and
CEO. “Our great team of partners working together has produced some positive
short-term results.
“We are so pleased that this spirit
of collaboration will now be both
resourced and supported by Lumina
and a broader group of stakeholders in
our region. As our coalition around college and certification attainment grows,
individual students and our region as a
whole will reap the benefits”
Lumina plans to invest approximately
$5.6 million in its newest 35 partners
and more than $13 million directly to
communities during the program. We
will work with Lumina through 2016 to
establish attainment goals best suited for
our communities.
“Research shows a direct correlation
between thriving cities and education
beyond high school,” said Jamie Merisotis, president and CEO, Lumina Foundation. “Increased attainment delivers
stronger local economies, greater individual earning power and better quality
of life. Every community in America
wants that, and we’ve designed this work
to give civic leaders the tools they need
to be successful,” —OC
Participants:
These FutureMakers participants demonstrate a strong sense of community and
collaboration by helping the Southwest
Florida Community Foundation craft the
charter that will be the framework for
the next two years of work in the region
with Lumina Foundation.
Inke Baker - President and CEO, Greater
Lehigh Acres Chamber of Commerce
Ava Barrett – Library Director, Clewiston
Public Library
Marshall Bower – President and CEO, Foundation
for Lee County Public
Schools
Stephen Bienko – President, College Hunks
Hauling Junk
Barbara Billie – Administrative Assistant, Seminole
Tribe of Florida
Diana Blakey – Receptionist, Credit and Finance,
Seminole Tribe of Florida
Mike Boose – Human
Resources Manager,
Arthrex
Steve Brettholtz –President, Myers, Brettholtz &
Co.
Lori Brooks – Assistant
Director, School Counseling Services, The School
District of Lee County
Mei Mei Chan – President
and Publisher, The NewsPress
Charles Chapman – Hendry County Administrator,
Hendry County
Carolyn Conant – Trustee,
Southwest Florida Community Foundation
Melissa Congress – President, Board of
Directors, Clinic for the Rehabilitation
of Wildlife
Eileen Connolly-Keesler – President
and CEO, Community Foundation of
Collier County
John Cox - President and CEO, Greater
Naples Chamber of Commerce
Pat Dobbins – Health Officer, Florida
Department of Health in Hendry and
Glades Counties and Trustee, Southwest
Florida Community Foundation
Dawn-Marie Driscoll – Immediate Past
Chair, Southwest Florida Community
Foundation Board of Trustees
George Duckstein – Principal, Clewiston High School
Debra Faulk – Vice President, Community Affairs, Wells Fargo
Joe Frank – Board of Directors, Big
Cypress Representative, Seminole Tribe
of Florida
John Gamba – CEO, JJ Enterprises and
Trustee, Southwest Florida Community
Foundation
Mali Gardner – Commissioner, City of
Clewiston
Meg Geltner – Executive Director, PACE
Center for Girls
Jeff Gibbs – Director, Florida SouthWestern State College – Hendry/Glades
Campus
Gregg Gillman – President, Hendry
County Economic Development Council
2,167
seniors in
participating
high schools
1,681
next step
chosen
912
2,302
2014
FutureMakers
FASFAs
completed as
of June 20
by the
Numbers
108
Marilyn Massaro –
Director, Post-Secondary
Programs, District School
Board of Collier County
Bill McCormick –
Director, Fort Myers Institute of Technology
Susan McManus –
President, Champions for
Learning
John Meyer - Dean,
School of Business and
Technology – Florida
SouthWestern State College
Steven Nisbet, Jr. –
Supervisor of Restaurant
Operations, McDonalds
Joe Paterno – Executive Director, Southwest
Florida Workforce Development Board
Antonio Perez – Attorney, McGahee & Perez,
PL
Al Perry – City Manager, City of Clewiston
Steve Pontius – Executive Vice President,
Waterman Broadcasting
Bruce Register –
Director, Business
and Economic Development, Collier
County
Al Reynolds – Vice President, Community Development, Stantec
Pat Riley – Executive Director, Alliance of
Educational Leaders
Lori Sampson Wilson – Accounting
Services Manager, Myers, Brettholtz &
Co.
Kim Spiezio – Provost, Hodges University
Lynnae Stewart – Director of Development, PACE Center for Girls
Sam Stewart – Retired Superintendent,
Mercer County, New Jersey
Donna Storter Long – Chair, Board of
County Commissioners, Glades County
Janet Taylor – Commissioner, Hendry
County
Nancy Tedros – Campus President,
Keiser University
Randy Toscano – Director of Human
Resources and Workforce Strategist, Lee
Memorial Health System
Karson Turner – Commissioner, Hendry
County
Janet Watermeier – President, Cushman
& Wakefield
Jim Wohlpart –Dean of Undergraduate
Studies, Florida Gulf Coast University
Sarah Zaiser – Associate Grants Director, Naples Children and Education
Foundation
Joe Zednik – Chair, Immokalee Foundation Board of Directors
one-on-one
mentoring
meetings
501
group mentor
meetings
FutureMakers
events
Dudley Goodlette – Founding Member,
Southwest Florida Economic Development Alliance
Richard Grant – Attorney, Grant Fridkin
Pearson, P.A.
Dennie Hamilton – President, Lee
County Electric Cooperative
Randy Henderson – Mayor, City of Fort
Myers
Jadira Hoptry – Vice President, Community and Economic Development, Fifth
Third Bank
Sylvester Humphrey – Community
Leader, Hendry County
Gary Jackson, Director, Regional Economic Research Institute, Lutgert College of Business – Florida Gulf Coast
University
Jeanine Joy – Vice President, Resource
Development and Marketing, United
Way of Lee, Hendry, Glades and
Okeechobee
Christy Kutz – Assistant Superintendent,
Teaching and Learning, The School District of Lee County
Mark Lapp – Attorney, Hendry County
Janice Lee – District Administrator, Hendry County Schools
Linda Lehtomaa – Senior Director of
Advancement, Florida Gulf Coast University
Duncan Macdonald – Vice President of
Procurement and Investment, United
States Sugar Corp.
Joy Mahler – CEO, Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Sun Coast
Our Approach:The Birth
of FutureMakers
n The Southwest Florida Community
Foundation convened our first
Regional Call to Action, assembling school officials, mentors,
financial contributors and other
stakeholders to discuss solutions.
n FutureMakers was born in 2013
with the mission of getting students in eight selected local high
schools engaged and excited
about college and career training.
Regional schools were selected
based on the low percentage of
seniors filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid in
recent years.
n Education and community organizations in each county assisted
the FutureMakers coalition in
providing one-on-one and group
mentoring, FAFSA workshops,
financial-aid application support
and career coaching.
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School-by-school FAFSA Completion
We launched FutureMakers with
optimism and realism, knowing a
program of this magnitude requires
baby steps before it can take off
running. According to Florida
College Access Network data
as of June 20, 2014, five schools
improved their Free Application
for Federal Student Aid completion rates and four were above the
state’s declining 31.18 percent (see
graph below). East Lee recorded
the biggest increase at 11.1 percent.
Cypress Lake, where Fritz and
Fritzlene attended high school, had
the highest FAFSA completion rate
with 44.6 students completing the
form as of June 20.
There are many challenges
affecting FAFSA completion
throughout the state, one of them
attributable to the state no longer
requiring the application to qualify
for Florida’s Bright Futures Scholarship program. —OC
FutureMakers
Partners
n The Foundation for Lee
County Public Schools
n Big Brothers Big Sisters of
the Sun Coast (Charlotte
County)
n Career Source (Hendry and
Glades counties)
n The Education Foundation
of Collier County Champions for Learning
n Smith Family Foundation
n Wells Fargo
n MassiveU
n Sherwood Brown
n The Price Foundation
Participating
Schools
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
Port Charlotte High School
Golden Gate High School
Cypress Lake High School
East Lee County High
School
Clewiston High School
LaBelle High School
Lehigh Senior High School
Moore Haven Junior Senior
School
G I V I N G M AT T E R S
Florida FAFSA Completion
School year
FAFSA completion rate (percent)
2013-14
38.18
2012-13
39.87
CHARLOTTE COUNTY
Port Charlotte High School
School year
No. of 12th-grade students Nov. 2013 FAFSA completion rate (percent)
2013-14
184
43.9
2012-13
161
40.0
2011-12
216
47.4
Improved 4 percent,
above state average
COLLIER COUNTY
Golden Gate High School
School year
No. of 12th-grade students Nov. 2013 FAFSA completion rate (percent)
2013-14
122
42.2
2012-13
105
38.9
2011-12
82
33.1
Improved 3.3 percent,
above state average
LEE COUNTY
Cypress Lake High School
School year
No. of 12th-grade students Nov. 2013 FAFSA completion rate (percent)
2013-14
152
44.6
2012-13
423
158
2011-12
360
153
Improved 7.2 percent,
above state average
East Lee High School
School year
No. of 12th-grade students Nov. 2013 FAFSA completion rate (percent)
2013-14
135
36.7
2012-13
106
25.6
2011-12
144
36.5
Improved 11.1 percent
Lehigh Senior High School
School year
No. of 12th-grade students Nov. 2013 FAFSA completion rate (percent)
2013-14
146
36.8
2012-13
141
32.6
2011-12
140
38.7
Improved 4.1 percent
HENDRY/GLADES COUNTIES
LaBelle High School
School year
No. of 12th-grade students Nov. 2013 FAFSA completion rate (percent)
2013-14
104
42.6
2012-13
114
44.9
2011-12
102
50.7
Above state average
Clewiston High School
School year
No. of 12th-grade students Nov. 2013 No. of students completing FAFSA
2013-14
51
30.4
2012-13
77
34.7
2011-12
69
35.2
Moore Haven Junior Senior High School
School year
No. of 12th-grade students Nov. 2013 FAFSA completion rate (percent)
2013-14
18
36.7
2012-13
20
38.5
2011-12
20
37.0
Number of FutureMaker school students completing FAFSA
2012-13
912
882
2011-12
926 (Note: prior to 2012, the Bright Futures program required a FAFSA form from all candidates)
2013-14
*Data as of June 20, 2014. Source: Florida College Access Network; www.floridacollegeaccess.org
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The Financial Challenge
G I V I N G M AT T E R S
The Florida College Access Network
got the attention of the Southwest Florida Community Foundation’s Initiatives
team when it reported more than $100
million in Pell Grants — free money for
college — went unclaimed by Florida’s
class of 2012 because graduates didn’t
know the funding existed. Students also
were not aware that filling out the Free
Application for Federal Student Aid,
known as FAFSA, would determine
how much grant funding and financial
assistance they could receive for postsecondary training and college.
Completing the FAFSA determines
eligibility for all financial aid and student loans plus state programs.
“Less than one-third of high-school
seniors in our five-county area fill out
the FAFSA,” said Sarah Owen, president and CEO, Southwest Florida Community Foundation. “Understanding
what type of financial aid is available
and how much they may qualify for can
make the difference between going to
college or not.”
The government provides more than
$150 billion in federal aid, grants, work
study funds and financial assistance
for students pursuing master’s and
bachelor’s degrees or technical training
certificates.
“A lot of students and parents don’t
realize there is federal and state money
out there for college,” said Troy Miller,
senior researcher and policy analyst for
FCAN, a statewide organization dedicated to strengthening and supporting
communities’ efforts to improve college and career preparation and access.
“FAFSA completion does lead to enrollment. On average, the form takes fewer
than 30 minutes to fill out, which is less
time most students spend completing
an actual college application.”
We at the Southwest Florida Com-
munity Foundation already knew some
of the area’s talented and brightest
students were forgoing postsecondary
educations because of the expense. But
we were shocked that so much money
was left behind and so few high school
graduates were completing the form.
“A high-school diploma is simply
not enough today for many Floridians
to qualify for well-paying jobs,” said
FCAN Executive Director Laurie Meggesin. “Communities, like Southwest
Florida, can work together to close the
achievement gap and in the process,
raise the quality of life for their residents as a whole.”
Obtaining a college or technical
school degree is important in today’s
global economy. By 2020, 60 percent
of Florida jobs will require a postsecondary degree or certificate. Currently
only 38 percent of working-age Floridians have earned a two- or four-year
degree, according to FCAN’s analysis
of national and state education data.
“We made a commitment this year
to walk alongside high school seniors
and work with a team across Southwest
Florida to expose them to resources for
college and career planning, financial
aid and scholarships,” said Mrs. Owen.
— OC
▲ Sherwood Brown
Grad App
n A smartphone app providing
students with relevant content
proved an ideal format to reach
graduating seniors. Development of our GradApp by
Naples’ MassiveU was funded
by a grant from Wells Fargo and
promoted by local hero Sherwood Brown, former shooting
guard for Florida Gulf Coast
University’s NCAA Sweet 16
men’s basketball team.
OUR COMMUNITY IS A
PUBLICATION OF THE
SOUTHWEST FLORIDA
COMMUNITY FOUNDATION
n The mobile application provides
comprehensive information
about career opportunities,
skills and education requirements for a variety of careers,
links to jobs, educationplanning resources, available
scholarships and financial aid,
money management and more.
8771 College Parkway
Building 2, Suite 201
Phone: (239) 274-5900
www.FloridaCommunity.com
The Board of Trustees of the Southwest Florida
Community Foundation is made up of community
leaders who are representative of the communities we serve. Trustees approve all grants made by
the Community Foundation and ensure that the
organization meets all laws and legal requirements.
For a list of our trustees, go to our website at
www.floridacommunity.com
“One day we will collectively look back
and know we’ve solved a big problem
together. Mostly our success will be told
in the eyes and stories of students who
are now on their way to college.”
— Susan McManus,
Education Foundation of Collier
County — Champions for Learning
Copyright ©2014
n “I wanted to give back to the
community that has been so
good to me. All the information
graduating seniors need is in
one place with the GradApp.
It’s a great help to parents, and
I’m really excited to be a part of
it,” said Mr. Brown.