Hoover Hosts Kick-Off of College Application Month

Hoover students wasted no time in applying to college as part of Iowa’s College Application Month campaign.

Iowa Governor Terry Branstad knows more than a little about applying for acceptance. He’s doing it again this fall as he stands for reelection.

But this morning he was at Hoover High School issuing a proclamation about applications of a not altogether different sort. October is College Application Month in Iowa as designated by the Iowa College Student Aid Commission and made official by the stroke of Governor Branstad’s pen.

What began as a pilot program in 2012 is growing by leaps and bounds. Last year 33 high schools across the state, including all five of the comprehensive ones in DMPS, participated. This year that number is up to 58.

The Iowa College Application Campaign is part of a national effort to engage and inform students across the state about the college application process. The purpose is to build awareness of higher education and encourage senior students, especially those from underserved populations, to take a significant step toward college by completing college applications during the school day.

A year ago Gov. Branstad chose East High School as the site to issue his proclamation because the Scarlets led the way in percentage of the senior class that completed at least one college app during the campaign. This year he and Lieutenant Governor Kim Reynolds came to Hoover to kick off the campaign for lots of reasons.

Hoover was a fitting location to launch the campaign. Not only did the school receive one of the first four grants awarded a year ago by the Governor’s STEM Advisory Council, since parlayed into impressive new classroom facilities for students enrolled in the school’s STEM Academy, the Huskies are steadily climbing in the Iowa AP Index compiled annually by the Belin-Blank Center at the University of Iowa. And the graduation rate is also on the rise at a school that is now an authorized provider of the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme in conjunction with its next door neighbor, Meredith Middle School, the only two schools in Iowa to offer this IB curriculum.

Where are all those graduates going to go after high school?

Lt. Gov. Reynolds told the seniors crowded around the podium in the Hoover library that currently only 41% of Iowa adults hold a two or four-year degree. That leaves a big gap to be filled by 2018 when it’s projected that 62% of jobs in the state will require some postsecondary education or training.

So the message is clear. Prepare yourself and there will be good jobs waiting for you at the finish line.

Gov. Branstad outlined his own rise from rural northwest Iowa to the governor’s mansion in Des Moines.

“My parents couldn’t afford to send me to college on their own,” he recalled. “I worked and saved, got a partial scholarship and borrowed some, too.” But he cautioned the students not to saddle themselves with too much debt. “I never missed a payment on my student loans but I didn’t get them paid off until my first term as governor.”

Lots of college sweatshirts were on display in the audience. Princeton, Iowa, Michigan, Buena Vista…And there were admissions reps from several area colleges and universities on hand to literally start taking applications as soon as Gov. Branstad and Lt. Gov. Reynolds had primed the pump and left the building to get back on the trail of that other campaign.

As a reminder of their visit and its purpose Hoover Principal Cindy Flesch was presented with the autographed original of the proclamation, full of gubernatorial language and flourishing fonts. It’s definitely suitable for framing and proud display – just like diplomas.

Video of the Governor’s Proclamation Signing at Hoover

Photos of the Governor’s Proclamation Signing at Hoover