Dear Friends of HEATH Resource Center,
It is with great enthusiasm that I introduce myself to you. I am Donna Martinez; the new Director of The HEATH Resource Center supported in part by Lumina Foundation for Education, an Indianapolis-based, private, independent foundation dedicated to expanding success in education beyond high school. I assumed the role of Director January 2007 when long-time Director, Dr. Pam Ekpone successfully completed projects funded by Office of Special Education Programs. Supporting Dr. Ekpone was her capable staff, Assistant Director, Zavolia Willis; Editor, Daniel Gardner; Dr. Michael Ward, Researcher; and Webmaster, Nasra Abdu. Under Dr. Ekpone’s excellent leadership, The HEATH Resource Center Team provided a wealth of information in its publications and direct personalized responses to telephone and AskHEATH email queries. I offer them my heartfelt thanks for extending me the same support during this transition period. Please join me in wishing the HEATH Team “Best of Luck!” as they leave their positions to embrace other possibilities. I look forward to serving you and continuing the standard of excellence they established.

HEATH is pleased to announce our 2007 edition of Creating Options: Financial Aid for Individuals with Disabilities is completely updated and revised to provide information to help individuals with disabilities in their quest of financial assistance for postsecondary education. Complementing our publication, the Federal Student Aid launched April 1, 2007 a new tool to help students and their families evaluate their options for planning and paying for education beyond high school, FAFSA4caster. The FAFSA4caster provides students with an early estimate of their eligibility for federal student financial assistance. FAFSA, which stands for Free Application for Federal Student Aid, is the form all college students must complete to seek federal financial aid. Many schools also require it for any aid they provide as well. The new tool
• Calculates your eligibility for federal financial aid, including grants, and
• Reduces the time it will take to complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), the qualifying form for all federal financial aid

For more information on the FAFSA4caster, visit:
FAFSA4caster Fact Sheet
FAFSA4caster Questions and Answers
Click here, to enter the Federal Student Aid Gateway—the source for free information, guidance and tools for federal student assistance—from the U.S. Department of Education's office of Federal Student Aid.

HEATH is excited to announce our Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feature. With the ease of a simple click on the orange button found through out our website pages you automatically receive our newsletters, publications, and updates to the HEATH website to your preferred web location. To learn more about RSS visit our home page and to see our announcement. You may also learn more about RSS by visiting these links:
What is RSS and what are web feeds? A beginners guide
What Is RSS? RSS Explained
RSS For Rookies
RSS: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Common Craft Show Video Training: RSS in Plain English

Another addition to the HEATH Resource Center website is our News tab. News items, updates and announcements of special interest relating to postsecondary education, career and technical education, and young adults with disabilities will be found on this page. The page will be updated frequently so be sure to revisit our website to learn what’s new in the field of postsecondary education for students with disabilities. Or better yet link to our RSS Feed.

We also invite you to visit our newly organized Links page where you will find new online resources, reports, and websites on many new topics. We have set up RSS Feed capability for this page as well.

We continue to invite high school based counselors, students, their parents, and others to visit our home page to read and download our comprehensive resource of its kind for high school career and guidance counselors Guidance and Career Counselors’ Toolkit: Advising High School Students with Disabilities on Postsecondary Options. Our Toolkit’s extensive 32 chapters inform about transition college preparation and campus services for students with disabilities. You are encouraged to download a copy for your files and share with others.

New innovations, exciting projects, and expanded goals for HEATH are planned with the support of Lumina Foundation for Education. We will continue HEATH’s efforts to increase awareness about ALL postsecondary options, including community college and career and technical education, for students with disabilities. Not only will we continue our enormously popular annual financial aid resource, but will also expand upon it by developing training modules discussing a wide range of issues in transition, postsecondary education, and post school outcomes for students with disabilities. Rounding out our plans for HEATH is an interactive guide to teach students with disabilities the self-advocacy skills necessary to succeed in college.

We look forward to inviting you soon to a “virtual house warming” by participating in a web tour of the HEATH site. Our goal is to guide you through the pages of The HEATH Resource Center to gain greater use of the information we house here.

Please note The HEATH Resource Center’s new mailing address and phone number listed in our About Us page. That I may offer you speedy service I encourage you to email your queries to AskHEATH@gwu.edu. Please do not hesitate to contact me if I can be of help. We always enjoy hearing from you and welcome your ideas.

All the best,

Donna Martinez
Director
The George Washington University
Graduate School of Education and Human Development
HEATH Resource Center