The Iona College Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) will be bringing the Hit the Books Running program to the New Rochelle community. On Thursday, February 26, 2009, the Iona PRSSA will be hosting an event in conjunction with the Boys & Girls Club (Remington Unit) in New Rochelle. This event will get students ages 11 to 14 to start thinking about going to college and their parents to start thinking about how to pay for it. The event will take place from 5 to 7 PM at the Boys & Girls Club (Remington Unit) on 116 Guion Place in New Rochelle. High school counselors and HSBC bank will be on hand to provide information to attendees.
In 2007, the Consumer Bankers Association (CBA) launched collegeboundaid.com as a way for college-bound students and their parents to get information about funding a college education. Recently, research from the President of the Educational Policy Institute showed that the four barriers that inhibit middle school students from attending college are college knowledge, academic preparation, college costs, and career counseling. As a result, the CBA launched the College Bound Aid Hit the Books Running program to address these issues by focusing on the necessary messages students need to excel.
These messages include the importance of a college degree in today’s world, how getting good grades now can pay off in the future, to start thinking about how to pay for college, and to raise awareness about the resources available to the students and their parents. Usually programs like this are geared towards older high school students and their parents, but the CBA recognizes that with today’s unpredictable economy, the younger generation should get an early start in thinking about higher education.
For more information, check out the Iona PRSSA Hit the Books Running website: http://ichitsthebooks.blogspot.com/
