The Missouri College Advising Corps will host an event Saturday to provide MU students, parents, faculty and staff with more information about financial aid and completing the FAFSA form.

“FAFSA Saturday” will take place from 12 to 5 p.m. Saturday in Room 124A of Strickland Hall and will allow attendees to ask questions and receive assistance in filing the federal financial aid form.

“We’re sponsoring the event to give back to the university and community,” said Jared Launius, MCAC college adviser at Winnetonka High School in Kansas City. “MU is a wonderful supporter of MCAC, so we felt compelled to do a service project to give back to the school.”

The MCAC, the MU division of the National College Advising Corps, aims to empower Missouri students to attend college and succeed. MCAC works mostly with low-income, first-generation college students and students from underrepresented communities.

This is the first time MCAC is giving back to MU community and the organization understands there are many students at MU who need to complete their FAFSA forms, MCAC Executive Director Beth Tankersley-Bankhead said.

“We will help any MU student and any child of MU faculty and staff in submitting the FAFSA,” Launius said.

Volunteers from MU Student Financial Aid and the Financial Planning Student Association will also be at the event to help, Launius said.

MCAC hopes to help more students attend college and afford a higher education. The organization has 25 full-time college advisors and hires recent MU graduates to work in 26 partner high schools across the state, Tankersley-Bankshead said.

“Our goal is to increase the number and percentage of students from those schools going to college,” Tankersly-Bankhead said. “So the advisors spend a lot time in those schools with the students and their families.”

MACA Business Coordinator Penelope A. Raines said the advisors are very knowledgeable and have spent many hours training to help students.