NET-TING SOME CASH TEEN'S WEB SITE RAISES FUNDS FOR COLLEGE TUITION.

Byline: SUE DOYLE Staff Writer

NEWHALL -- To help pay for college, some students take part-time jobs, type papers or sell homemade cookies on campus.

But one Newhall teen has a new idea for the age-old problem of hefty tuition costs: an online fundraiser.

Eighteen-year-old Roxanne Phen started www.educatingrox.com this week to gather the $45,000 she'll need each year for Claremont McKenna College, the private school she'll attend this fall. She's the first in her family to go to college.

``I've applied for many scholarships but I felt this was something I had to take into my own hands,'' she said. ``I can't count on scholarship committees to finance my education.''

The Hart High School graduate realized she needed a whopping boost to her college fund after adding up the $6,000 in scholarships she earned from local organizations and coming up well below the estimated $180,000 in tuition and housing costs for her bachelor's degree.

One day, after volunteering to help raise money for a cause at a 5K run, she was struck at how easily the cash flowed in.

``I thought, `Man, that would be helpful if I could have something like that to raise money for college,''' she said.

So she brainstormed ideas and came up with the Web site, where for $24 visitors can buy black T-shirts that read ``Educating Rox.'' This week she sold 16 of them, mainly to family and friends.

Her site includes advice about college admissions, essays, standardized tests and also includes a philanthropic side. For each contribution, $1 goes to a nonprofit that focuses on literacy and soccer, a sport she has played all her life.

Skyrocketing college costs often leave parents laying wide eyed in bed at night, crunching numbers and thinking of clever financial strategies to offset the price tag.

Phen's parents, a construction general foreman and stay-at-home mom, are no exception.

``It's a very scary prospect,'' said her mother, Kelly Phen, about college tuition prices.

Kelly said her daughter could attend a less-expensive school, but she has worked so hard during high school -- maintaining a 4.5 grade-point average -- that the family wasn't about to tell her no.

Whatever comes, they'll figure a way out to pay for school, she said.

``We feel she did her part with school and grades, but definitely any financial help at this point is needed,'' Kelly said. ``She's ready to take on part of that, instead of skating by.''

sue.doyle(at)dailynews.com

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CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Roxanne Phen, 18, is selling T-shirts online in an effort to raise money for college.

(2 -- color) Roxanne Phen, 18, of Newhall works on her Web site, which sells custom-made T-shirts in an effort to raise funds to pay for her $45,000-a-year tuition at Claremont McKenna College.

David Crane/Staff Photographer