San Luis High School honored

Garners further recognition for its efforts to ensure students’ postsecondary success

San Luis High School continues to set the standard for institutions across the state in ensuring students are prepared to achieve academic success in their postsecondary pursuits.

For the third time in 12 months, the south county high school has received recognition from the Arizona Commission for Postsecondary Education for its work in increasing its Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) student completion rate.

Earlier this month, Gov. Doug Ducey’s Office of Education and the Arizona FAFSA Challenge declared San Luis High School the October 2020 Most Innovative Player award recipient – a statewide recognition for going “above and beyond” to increase FAFSA completion rates and “ensure more Arizona students are equipped to pursue postsecondary success.”

“During the pandemic the counseling department had to come up with innovative ideas and tutorials for any student to follow along on how to create their Federal Student Aid (FSA) ID and complete the FAFSA application,”

SLHS Counseling Director Cesar Castillo said. “This has become a school culture where our current English teachers, with the FAFSA expertise of our counselor Carmen Castaneda and dropout prevention specialist Rigo Conde and concurrent support from Arizona Western College, work with our seniors through the month of October to help them complete their Financial Aid process.”

Last month, the high school’s counseling department held a socially-distanced, drive-up “FAFSA Fiesta” in which over 120 completed their free application. The department has also launched a social media campaign to share FAFSA-related content, such as the “do’s and don’ts” of filling out an application, via Facebook at www. facebook.com/SLHSCounselingOffice.

Last school year, San Luis High School received the Arizona FAFSA Challenge MVP award for the highest FAFSA completion rate in the state and “large school” category. The school also earned the Most Innovated Player award in December 2019.