Cascades Academy holds College Fair for area HS students to learn about admissions, financial aid processes

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Hundreds of area high school students and their parents learned how to navigate the college application process on Saturday at Cascades Academy, which hosted its first-ever STORY (Small Town Outreach and Recruitment Yielding) College Fair. 

"Thirty-plus colleges and universities are here today, some of whom are big-name private institutions like Harvard, Yale and Princeton," Upper School Head Lauren Kelley said. "But we also have some wonderful regional public institutions as well, and everything in between."

 About 300 people were registered - parents and students, alike - to get ready for college. 

Cascades Academy senior Lucas Triplett said, "This is the first time I've seen a lot (of colleges) on the East Coast, and that's where I'm more looking to go, like New York, like - NYU's here and a few others. So that's really cool."

 The fair helped to ease students' minds about the path going forward. 

Cascades Academy senior Kai Sereni said, "I'd to apply to Stanford or at MIT. There have been some really interesting things. It's been great to get clarity on the admissions process - and especially the financial aid process, which is something that's going to be very important for me."

Cascades Academy's mission is to inspire life-long learners. 

A goal of the college fair was to make sure students from rural areas have access to college admissions and other information.

Kelley said, "We're excited to be supporting students in their educational journey and hope that we can connect them with programs beyond high school that help them to continue to be lifelong learners."