Personal text messages offer support as students face higher education

Article: Times West Virginian

FAIRMONT, W.VA. — The West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission recently launched a three-year pilot project that will help high school seniors prepare for college and begin their freshman year of higher education.

The text message support project, which has not yet been officially named, has two main goals: to remind students of deadlines and important steps in the college application process, and to provide them with support and answers to any questions they have along the way.

The project is a twist on traditional methods used to help students plan and prepare to move on to higher education.

“We provide that sort of support through what have become traditional channels like email and hotlines,” said Jessica Kennedy, assistant director of communications with the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission, “but we know students utilize text messaging as a primary mean to communicate. We want to offer that avenue as well.”

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