The Financial Aid Office for Cerritos has put together a newsletter in hopes to make more students aware of the financial opportunities that are available to them.

A handful of co-workers from the financial aid office that includes Jamie Quiroz, Adriana Leguizmon, Juan Carrillo, Veronica Castro and Gustavo Romero are responsible for a new newsletter being distributed each quarter or every three months.

At the beginning of April the first issue of the newsletter was printed tackling financial topics from scholarships, a calendar for, statistics, and website information.

Financial Aid specialist Quiroz said, “A lot of students are misinformed; when students think of financial aid they think loans.

“They aren’t aware that there is money out there that they don’t have to pay back.”

In a recent e-mail Quiroz received, she was informed that there are a total of 23,183 students enrolled for Spring ’09 at Cerritos College. 10,332 are receiving some form of aid for 2009.

This means that 44.57 percent of the total numbers of students are receiving some sort of financial aid.

Students like Isabel Gomez, nursing major, likes the fact that there is a source being distributed on campus that helps explain where students can get money to pay for school.

FAFSA, short for Free Application for Federal Student Aid, is a government-funded grant.

Depending on your financial situation, you could be getting money that does not have to be paid back.

“There are so many myths about financial aid that we want to put to rest. I want to encourage all students to apply for FAFSA; there is free money out there for students if they would just apply,” Quiroz said.

This information will also be available online. Look up the Financial Aid Web site and click on the newsletter tab for a quicker, and sometimes more accessible, version of the newsletter.