By Kacie Axsom
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Before he met Jeff Woodard, Martin Dietz was on his own to figure out
the college application process.

Dietz graduated from Wilkinsburg High School this year, and he plans to
attend Lincoln University in the fall. But before he received his
acceptance letter, he had to sort through college applications and
financial aid options.

“As the year went on, I kept having trouble with it,” said Dietz, 18.
“But (Woodard) would always be there. Then, everything was easy.”

Woodard is the executive director of the Pennsylvania College Access
Program, or PA-CAP. Since 2001, the nonprofit has worked with
Wilkinsburg High School and Wilkinsburg Academy seniors to prepare them
for college applications.

The organization’s volunteers meet several times with the students
throughout the year in groups. This year, they began one-on-one
meetings, resulting in a dramatic increase in the number of students
pursuing higher education, Woodard said.

“I wasn’t even planning on going to college, and when I met Jeff, he
convinced me,” said Carlos Salazar, who graduated from the University of
Pittsburgh with a bachelor’s degree and California University of
Pennsylvania with a master’s degree in business administration. He now
works for PNC Financial Services Group in New Jersey.

Salazar said he didn’t know how to go about the applications process and
wasn’t really motivated to go to school. Woodard helped Salazar on his
own time during PA-CAP’s infancy.

“Parents don’t know what to do, kids don’t know what to apply for, even
though there’s a lot of information out there,” Salazar said. “This
program is a stepping stone for them.”

Seniors list their preferred colleges or universities, and PA-CAP
volunteers help them get the appropriate applications, financial aid
forms, and ensure they are taking SATs or ACTs.

“I think every school should do it,” said Dietz, who plans to major in
business management. PA-CAP is trying to find funding to help Dietz move
to Lincoln University, southwest of Philadelphia.

About 98 percent of Wilkinsburg High School seniors from the class of
2007 have been accepted to institutions of higher learning, said
superintendent Archie Perrin. He said they won’t know actual attendance
rates until the fall term begins.

About 83 percent of seniors from the class of 2006 were college-bound,
which was higher than the county average of 80 percent and the statewide
average of 75 percent, according to the most recent data from the
Pennsylvania Department of Education.

Perrin said PA-CAP, along with the school’s guidance department, has
provided many opportunities for students, and he attributes Wilkinsburg
students’ high acceptance rates to their efforts.

The PA-CAP program costs about $250 a student each year, which goes
toward college application fees, housing deposits, and helps provide
college visits — all things students might not be able to afford
otherwise.

Funding comes from donations, and Woodard hopes to secure state grants
to expand the program to more schools in the county and surrounding
areas.

“We want to make sure that everyone is going to college,” he said.

by Deborah M. Todd
Staff Writer
New Pittsburgh Courier

What started off as a friend helping friends apply for school is, today, a non-profit organization that helped send 98 percent of Wilkinsburg High School seniors to a post-secondary institution.

“I was working at Westmoreland Community College in the financial aid office and so many people would come in wanting to go to school,” explained Jeffrey Woodard, executive director of the Pennsylvania College Access Program.

“They would get frustrated with the process of wanting to go to school. They would usually take the stuff and just read over it and look at it. Sometimes they might want to throw it away because they didn’t have a lot of people taking time out to help them fill out the paperwork.”

So Woodard took it upon himself to help individuals fill out college applications and financial aid forms. He also helped write essays, find scholarships and provided whatever support he could to get them into school. After officially establishing the Pennsylvania College Access Program in 2000, Woodard says he has helped more than 5,572 students continue their educations.

“I have a passion for education,” said Woodard. “Anyone and everyone I talk to if they’re not in school, by the end of that conversation, they’re in school.”

“Jeff is a great salesperson,” said Krsna “Carlos” Salazar, a PA-CAP alumnus who met Woodard through a mutual friend. Salazar, who said he had no college plans when he came to Pittsburgh in 1997, now has a Bachelors degree in Spanish from the University of Pittsburgh and a Masters in Science and Business from California University of Pennsylvania. He credits a great deal of his success to Woodard’s guidance.

“If it wasn’t for him helping me out, I’m sure I would have started college at a much later point than I had,” he said Salazar.

Woodard conducted a similar conversation with high school seniors from Wilkinsburg School District at the beginning of the previous school year. Thanks to his efforts, 98 percent of those students, all of them Black students, have been accepted to postsecondary institutions or programs.

Woodard uses a form that list questions commonly found on college and financial aid applications to gather information from students. He then uses the information to fill out applications for the colleges each student chooses.

“I met with all the seniors and did all the applications,” said Woodard. “On top of that, I filed by deadline all the FAFSA forms and completed NEED applications,” said Woodard.

“We did, for Wilkinsburg High School, 91 seniors, give or take a few. Each senior was asked for four schools, so we did about 364 applications. Some students sent us applications to 8 to 10 different schools.”

The program also went above and beyond for students that were not initially accepted to schools. Woodard personally called Lincoln University to lobby for Wilkinsburg graduate Martin Dietz’s acceptance.

“I didn’t take them seriously. I think I went to sleep that day,” said Dietz of the day PA-CAP came to Wilkinsburg. In spite of his initial disinterest, Dietz says Wilkinsburg wouldn’t have the exceptional acceptance rate it has without the program.

“It wouldn’t have been the case, especially not coming from my school,” he said. “At my school, a lot of people didn’t care.”

“It’s made a major difference,” said Wilkinsburg School District Superintendent Archie Perrin of the program’s impact.

“I think that with students nowadays, it doesn’t matter what school you’re from, just navigating through the acceptance process, given they have jobs after school and other responsibilities at home and outside of school itself, the fact that you have someone to personally guide them through the process and actually get them to the first stage (of) acceptance into college I think is a major milestone.”

While the ultimate goal of PA-CAP is to expand its reach to other schools, Woodard also hopes to raise funds to further assist the students it does reach.

“Right now, our number one goal is to raise funding for kids to go off to college,” he said. “We’re trying to raise funds for the time when kids go to school, because they have no way of getting there. They don’t have means to get to campus when class starts in the fall.”

But in the meanwhile Woodard will continue pushing young people, even those who have been to college, to continue their education. “Even people who have a Bachelors degree—that’s unacceptable to me. Go back and get your Masters,” he said.