Inspired Pathways scholarship recipients Dat and Tien Dang reflect on college, gratitude and the impact Hormel Foods has had on their lives.
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Accepting Help and Giving Back
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A Force for Good
A Hormel Foods Inspired Pathways Scholarship recipient feels destined to enter law enforcement.
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Engineering a Career
The Hormel Foods Inspired Pathways program helps an Illinois student avoid debt on her way to an engineering degree.
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Nursing Superpower
The Hormel Foods Inspired Pathways program helps a Montevideo teen pursue his childhood dream of becoming a nurse.
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Providing More Than Scholarships
Financial aid counseling and other assistance from Hormel Inspired Pathways helped Addison Hoermann make the jump to her chosen four-year college.
This past May, 20-year-old Janeth Hermosillo proudly strode across a stage in the gymnasium of Illinois Valley Community College to receive her diploma after completing an associate’s degree in medical lab science. Just moments before, the college president handed her smiling 19-year-old brother, Alejandro, his diploma for an associate’s degree in art.
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An Inspired Partnership
Hormel Inspired Pathways partners with Tidewater Community College to support educating the children of Hormel Foods team members.
Over the course of two days in February and May, the Hormel Inspired Pathways program team hosted a series of eight instructional sessions with 100 employees at the Jennie-O facility in Barron, Wisconsin before and after their shifts. The goal of the virtual visits: help employees utilize the company’s Inspired Pathways Scholarship and Advising Program, and better understand the ins and outs of college applications and financial aid.
Some of the topics the Inspired Pathways team covered:
- Community college scholarship details
- Navigating FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid)
- Wisconsin-specific financial aid questions
- The difference between a college’s “sticker price” and final costs
- The many ways families can utilize the Pathways program to help their student get into and afford 4-year colleges.
If you would like to arrange a virtual visit for your facility, reach out to advising@hormelinspiredpathways.com or call/text 507-481-0142.
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Demonstrated Interest
With students able to easily apply to 15-20 schools at a time, demonstrated interest has become a key tool for colleges to gauge applicant engagement.
Effective ways to demonstrate interest:
- Attend virtual events or in-person tours.
- Attend information sessions, either remotely or in person, especially those tied to specific majors.
- Email admissions reps with thoughtful questions about your fit and interests.
At public universities, these touchpoints help admissions officers differentiate among similarly qualified students and can essentially serve as a tie-breaker. At private colleges, interest can have a much bigger impact on being admitted. For private schools it is critical to admit the exact number of students they need, and students who make their interest clear help that process.
Bottom line: It never hurts to reach out and to demonstrate your interest in a college. To have the most positive impact, make sure you’re doing so in a way that allows your potential future college to track it. Events you have to register for are best, and even things like opening their emails can help.
In 2020, with the onset of the pandemic and the many challenges that came with it, the majority of colleges instituted Test Optional and Test Blind admissions policies. These policies significantly reduced the role of standardized testing in the admissions process.
However, colleges quickly realized that with only grades and essays to look at, differentiating between tens of thousands of students was much more difficult. After 5 years of these policies, and many attempts to find alternative evaluation methods, many colleges have concluded that they need standardized tests to evaluate large applicant pools consistently.
The following colleges have reinstituted testing requirements:
Harvard, Yale, Brown, Dartmouth, Cornell, MIT, Caltech, Georgetown, University of Texas, all Florida public colleges, Georgia Tech, and Purdue.
This list is expected to grow, so it’s important to plan early. We recommend using the SAT prep program offered by Khan Academy. It was created in collaboration with College Board (owners of the SAT), is completely FREE, and the program’s algorithm tailors practice tests to your needs as you go.