$500 to Marie Garza, attending University of Texas - Pan American

$500 to Seth Boddicker, attending Austin College

Each recipient will receive a scholarship toward the cost of tuition at their respective college or university. COSTEP is proud to award these scholarships in order to help accomplish dreams of going to college.

$1000 to Ronak Ghiya

$1000 to Benjamin Pedraza

$1000 to Brianna Cobb

$1000 to Dorothea Sykes

$1000 to Genita Maligi

Each recipient will receive a scholarship toward the cost of tuition at their respective college or university. COSTEP is proud to award these scholarships in order to help accomplish dreams of going to college. (Click here for a more complete list of COSTEP’s scholarship winners.)

Check out our scholarship drawing for your chance to win!

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EL PASO, Texas - [El Paso Times] - March 10, 2008 - Mobile college-resource van to make 3 stops

The Ysleta Independent School District is hosting MERV, the Mobile Education Resource Vehicle today.

The college financial-aid van will be available at Bel Air High School from 8 to 11 a.m., at Parkland High School from 1 to 4 p.m., and at YISD Central Office, 9600 Sims, from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. The van is visiting El Paso courtesy of Costep, a San Antonio-based college-funding organization.

This 37-foot recreational vehicle is outfitted with nine laptop computer work stations, wireless Internet, laser printer, three flat-screen TVs and comprehensive financial aid and scholarship information. Area high-school seniors and their parents are invited to visit MERV. [Original Story Here]

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EL PASO, Texas - [El Paso Times] - March 11, 2008 - Students get help with financial aid on MERV

Above, Lonnie Rodriguez, left, of COSTEP helped Parkland High School senior Christine Aranda with financial aid information Monday inside MERV, the Mobile Education Resource Vehicle, at the school’s parking lot. COSTEP, short for Council for South Texas Economic Progress, assists college-bound Texas students and their families with free scholarship searches, student loan information and other financial aid assistance. MERV also visited Bel Air High School and the Ysleta Independent School District central offices and will be at El Paso Community College’s Valle Verde Campus from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. today. [Original Story Here]

Today COSTEP has launched a more integrated system for borrowers to make their payments online. Rather than continuing with a fee-based third party to handle secure transactions online, the link to make a no-fee online payment is now included within the borrower’s Account Access area. As of today, borrowers can access the new payment option by clicking the “Log in to my Account” link at the top right-hand corner of every page throughout the site. Recurring payments will also be available in April 2008 for those interested

COSTEP, a not-for-profit servicer of student loans, announced that it has launched their “Scholarship Caps” program on the popular online social network Facebook. Facebook boasts 35 million members as of July 2007, with a core membership consisting of those who are in college or near college-age. Being made available to eligible Facebook members is a total of $5,000 in scholarships.

“Facebook members explain why they think they deserve a COSTEP scholarship,” explained COSTEP media director and project manager Joel Wilson. “Then they try to get their friends to vote for them. The five people with the most votes at the end of the program will be awarded the scholarships.”

“This program allows a broader group of people to be involved in the scholarship award process,” explained Patricia Beard, president of COSTEP. Our goal is to reach students and their parents and let them know that a college education is attainable and that paying for college is not out of their reach.”

COSTEP views this initiative as an innovative and cutting-edge approach for awarding scholarships. According to COSTEP, an all-in-one social network such as Facebook offers a new and different way to be in touch with students and their parents.

“We’re continually looking for new and different ways to reach out to students and young professionals,” said Wilson. “We’re really excited to see where this might go.”

The Scholarship Caps program was launched and made available to all Facebook members on Tuesday, September 4th. Those looking to join the scholarship contest and track the award results can do so on COSTEP’s homepage (www.costep.org), or contestants may join by searching the Facebook Application Directory for “Scholarship Caps.”

$500 to Jessica Yvonne Vasquez
(currently attending Texas A&M University)

$500 to Luis Leal
(currently attending Blinn Junior College)

$500 to Adriel De La Cruz
(attending Sam Houston State University)

$500 to Felicia Perez
(attending St. Phillip’s College)

$500 to Gregory Maurice McEwen
(attending University of Texas-San Antonio)

$250 to Darryk Caraveo
(attending Valley Grande Institute)

Each recipient will receive a scholarship toward the cost of tuition at their respective college or university. COSTEP is proud to award these scholarships in order to help accomplish dreams of going to college. (Click here for a more complete list of COSTEP’s scholarship winners.)

Check out our scholarship drawing and Facebook scholarship for your chance to win!

The workshop will teach student athletes the proper way to be recruited, the importance of academics and the life-altering challenges players face when playing football at a the college level.

COSTEP, a not-for-profit student loan lender and servicer, is the corporate sponsor and will provide students with information on how to fund their college education. “We feel this is an excellent opportunity for high school athletes and their parents to see what is involved with the athletic recruiting process, as well as what other opportunities and resources are available to fund college,” said Carlos Contreras of COSTEP’s student outreach program. “We are expecting hundreds of Valley student athletes to participate.”

The workshop will be held at the Jagz Entertainment Center in Pharr and is expected to draw over 300 student athletes and their parents. Other guests will include Jamar Taylor, a former NFL player with the New York Giants, and sports personality Tony Forina.

“The site has been built using the latest technologies that are setting the new standard for interaction and customer value,” said Joel Wilson, project manager and assistant developer for the new site. “Social technologies have given recognition and personality to the web, allowing for an unprecedented level of interaction and connection between our customers and COSTEP. Blogging, podcasting and vodcasting allow you to read, hear and see the face of COSTEP.”

The site is powered by an internal search engine that allows users to enter a word or phrase and the site will take the user to the information they are seeking.“We have painstakingly provided everything you ever wanted to know about applying for a student loan and comprised it into a workable, user friendly format,” said Adam Gonzalez, vice-president of Business Development. “We combined the COSTEP look with a functional dynamic format.”

The site makes it easy for students, parents, graduates, and borrowers to navigate to the section that is specifically designed for their needs. In addition, the site offers a scroll over term definition feature that defines terms as you read information about the student loan process and makes getting a student loan easy.

“Our goal is to make it simple to apply for student loans online. To do so we needed to explain the loan process. The loan process can be intimidating to say the least, so we took the opportunity to explain the process in everyday terms,” commented Pat Beard, president of COSTEP.

Research shows the reason students don’t apply for loans is due to a lack of knowledge of the process. The designers for COSTEP.org see the site as a tool to teach students how to get a student loan and prepare for college. “There are sections of the site dedicated to high school counselors and college financial aid directors. However, the focus of COSTEP.org is the student loan process,” said Beard. “Knowledge of the student loan process can open doors for literally thousands of students and their families who think they can’t afford college. There are wonderful programs available. This is what COSTEP is all about.”

Beginning July 1, 2007 student loans, with variable interest rates, will rise by .08 percent. “This is not a huge increase, but why pay at the higher rate if you don’t have to,” said Mari Mann-Silva, vice-president of Financial Operations, for the not-for-profit Council for South Texas Economic Progress (COSTEP).

Rates have increased over the past two years as a result of the Higher Education Reconciliation Act (HERA) signed into law by President Bush on February 8, 2006.

“We anticipate an increase in student loan consolidation activity but not like we’ve had in the past couple of years. Typically, everyone waits until the last minute to consolidate and we experience a high influx of requests around three days prior to the midnight June 30th deadline,” commented Mari Mann-Silva. “Loan consolidation discounts typically in the form of discounts on the loan interest rates along with the July 1, 2007 rate increase are driving the market,” she added. “COSTEP offers interest rate discounts based on loan amounts.”

“The end result is that many students could pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars more in higher interest rates over the life of their loan unless they take advantage of the interest rate discounts that are currently being offered.,” said Patricia Beard, president of COSTEP. “There is a window of opportunity but the window may be closing due to legislation currently pending in Congress that could effect lenders to point where they will no longer offer discounted interest rates.”

COSTEP urges all students and parents with student loans to review their student loan rates and take advantage of the discounts offered by lenders. Visit COSTEP’s website on www.costep.org and click on Get a Loan! to e-sign your loan application.

The not-for-profit COSTEP has extended its hours to accommodate more students. They will be open until 9:00 pm, June 25-29 and will keep its offices open from 12:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m., Saturday, June 30.