The Florida College Access Network’s (FCAN) four statewide initiatives – Plan It Florida, Apply Yourself Florida, Florida FAFSA Challenge, and College Decision Day – share one goal: keep students at the center of the process.
Each initiative, under the College Ready Florida umbrella, has its own role as students take steps toward continuing their education. Together, they help students plan for the future, navigate the process, and get to and through a postsecondary education.
On August 26, FCAN hosted a webinar featuring the local, state and national leaders driving these four initiatives forward.
It Starts With a Plan
College plans change as students learn who they are and what path they want to explore. As students figure that out, JAXUSA Partnership, the backbone organization for Northeast Florida’s local college access network, gives them a place to start: Earn Up.
Melissa Vasseur, senior director of talent development at JAXUSA, emphasized the importance of working with partners to scale and reach students across the seven counties the LCAN serves. Her team of seven covers a workforce region of roughly 900,000 people.
To accomplish this, Earn Up’s website operates as a central hub and highlights six targeted industries — advanced manufacturing, transportation and logistics, financial services, life sciences, technology services and corporate operations — plus nine growing support industries.
Each industry profile showcases the education pipeline, average salary, and top employers, allowing students to make informed decisions on their future career. The website also segments audiences including high school, college, adult and veterans with information on FAFSA, college and career development and other support services.
Students who aren’t sure where to start can take Earn Up’s Career Quiz, then follow up with an internship to build real experience. The point, Vasseur said, is connecting the classroom to what comes after it.
“Students say all the time, why am I taking this math class? Well, when you connect it to career pathways, that helps them see the why,” she said.
Visit FCAN’s Plan It Florida webpage for more college and career readiness resources for students and practitioners.
Taking the First Step
Apply Yourself Florida, running September through November, encourages students to apply early, ahead of priority deadlines.
Adriana Pavicic, FCAN’s communications and initiatives manager, noted the initiative can also resurface in the spring for students who haven’t yet decided on a college plan before graduation.
To kick off the college application season, a national effort from the American College Application Campaign (ACAC) will recognize students on Friday, September 18 for #WhyApply Day. This social media campaign encourages schools, districts and communities to share why they applied to college to inspire students to continue their education.
Dr. Trevor McCray, program director at ACT Center for Impact and Learning, shared how Florida communities can participate using ACAC resources, including social media assets, to promote the campaign locally. He also shared the scale of the national campaign: in 2025, ACAC engaged more than 9,000 high schools, reaching 1.95 million students, who submitted 2.6 million college applications — a record year for the initiative.
“You can’t go to college if you don’t apply,” McCray said.
ACAC Resources:
Funding the Journey
The single biggest lever for cutting the cost of college is a form: the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). To spread awareness and promote FAFSA completion, FCAN hosts the annual Florida FAFSA Challenge, encouraging schools and districts to increase their FAFSA completion rate by at least 5% compared with the prior year.
Ansberto Vallejo, supervisor of career, technical and adult education at Hillsborough County Public Schools, discussed the district’s efforts, which led to the state’s largest gains among extra-large districts and a 20% increase in FAFSA completion over two years.
By using FCAN’s FAFSA dashboard in conjunction with the Office of Student Financial Assistance (OSFA) dashboard, school staff tracked completions and provided targeted support to students who hadn’t completed the form yet. The district also worked with the region’s local college access network, LEAP Tampa Bay, which provided staff support and student incentives, alongside financial aid staff from area colleges and universities who helped facilitate FAFSA completion sessions with laptops on hand and breakout sessions in Spanish.
“Being able to see the faces of families that got their applications completed, they got them submitted, and then they got the maximum Pell Grant — this is something that you can’t put money on,” Vallejo said.
This year’s FAFSA Challenge starts October 1 and runs through March 31, 2027. In May, FCAN’s annual Talent Strong Florida Summit will recognize schools, school districts and legislative districts for the largest gains and for highest FAFSA completion rates.
Celebrating Success
At the end of the school year, it’s time to celebrate success. On or around May 1, communities hold College Decision Day events where students are recognized for their commitment to continuing their education.
In Gainesville, College Decision Day isn’t a school event; it’s a county one. Ian Fletcher, chief operating officer and interim managing director at the Greater Gainesville Chamber of Commerce, started the local event in 2019 with 30 students at Celebration Point, after a trip to the White House’s College Signing Day showed him what it could look like to celebrate first-generation students publicly.
“A movement begins with someone willing to go first,” he said.
What began as a friendly rivalry between two schools — Eastside and Buchholz High Schools, both pushing to bring the most students — has grown into a county-wide tradition backed by the Florida Lottery and Bright Futures, complete with medallions for scholarship recipients and, this year, an oath of enlistment for a graduate joining the Navy. Students are encouraged to wear gear from their university, college or military branch while the Chamber decorates the event space with yard signs, banners and flags.
Read more about Gainesville’s 2026 College Decision Day event.
FCAN’s 2026 College Ready Florida Innovator
At the 2026 Talent Strong Florida Summit, FCAN awarded Anita Herrera, assistant director of Tutor Corps High School at the Guadalupe Center, as the 2026 College Ready Florida Innovator.
Her program serves 135 students in grades 9 through 12 in Immokalee. Students earn a wage tutoring younger children after school and up to $4,000 a year in scholarship funds along with it. The Class of 2026’s 34 seniors graduated with an average 4.27 weighted GPA, 386 combined college credits and more than $4.15 million in scholarships and grants.
Herrera’s efforts across FCAN’s four initiatives support students in all aspects of the college-going process.
- For Plan It Florida, the work starts with an annual career interest survey and a research project students present to their mentors, followed by a junior-year college tour across the state. This work then evolves into test prep as students enter the phase of applying to college. Students also create a college list where they identify schools as safety, match, or reach. The Guadalupe Center schedules weekly senior meetings to check in with students and provides feedback on key application requirements.
- To encourage FAFSA completion, financial aid events are hosted in the fall and spring where students and families can ask questions with help from staff members.
- At the end of the school year, all students are celebrated for their plans after high school. Students attend a dinner with their family and have their plans publicly announced, building excitement and pride throughout the community.
“The resources already exist on the FCAN website,” Herrera said. “It’s just us making sure that we can make the impact happen when we bring them to life for our students and their families.”
How To Get Involved
Your school, district or community can get involved in any of the initiatives by registering HERE. FCAN’s toolkits and resources are built to support you as you implement and organize a college-going culture in your area.
For updates on new resources, webinars and general support, sign up for FCAN’s mailing list.
Show Notes: