COLLABORATION
The National College Access Network (NCAN) and the Pathways to College Network (PCN) are collaborating to expand, manage, and promote the National College Access Program Directory, a searchable online set of profiles of college access programs across the United States that help underserved students prepare, plan, and pay for college. PCN is a national alliance of organizations committed to using research-based knowledge to improve postsecondary education access and success. NCAN is an association of programs, centers and statewide networks that help motivate low-income, first generation and underrepresented students to enroll in and graduate from post-secondary institutions.

	SUPPORT FOR ENHANCEMENTS Great Lakes Higher Education Guaranty Corporation (GLHEGC) has been a national leader in the student loan industry, providing services to borrowers, lenders, schools, and guaranty agencies for more than 35 years. GLHEGC has agreed to support the promotion and enhancement of the National College Access Program Directory with a generous grant.
	The National Council of Higher Education Loan Programs, Inc (NCHELP). represents a nationwide network of guaranty agencies, secondary markets, lenders, loan servicers, collectors, schools and other organizations involved in the administration of the Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP). NCHELP has provided support for the National College Access Program Directory.

HISTORY OF THE DIRECTORY
The Directory was first established as an online application by the Pathways to College Network in 2004, under the name “National Outreach Program Database.” Much of the information in that database was published earlier in print by the College Board as the 2001 Outreach Program Handbook, authored by Watson Scott Swail. The Handbook, in turn, grew out of the ConnectED 2000 conference, which was sponsored by the College Board, The Education Resources Institute (TERI), the James Irvine Foundation, the National TRIO Clearinghouse and the Council for Opportunity in Education, the Sallie Mae Education Institute, the National Council for Community and Education Partnerships, and the U.S. Department of Education.