By Maria Carrasco, NASFAA Staff Reporter
The past year has been tough for financial aid administrators across the country, partly due to the rollout of the 2024-25 FAFSA, and the upcoming launch of the 2025-26 FAFSA. Financial aid administrators have also dealt with other hurdles in the past year, such as understaffing in their own offices, administrative burden, and more.
So, to recognize and continue celebrating Financial Aid Day, NASFAA is sharing stories on why financial aid administrators do what they do, despite all the hurdles. We also highlight some initiatives and projects aid offices have taken on to help students access federal student aid.
Financial Aid Day is a special day set aside to celebrate and recognize the contribution of all financial aid professionals across the U.S. for helping students make their college-going dreams a reality. On Financial Aid Day, colleagues are encouraged to do something special to celebrate financial aid administrators' contributions to the profession.
While you celebrate your special day, be sure to check out some professional stories from your colleagues:
Heather Boutell, FAAC®, director of financial aid at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, shared one story of how a returning medical student was struggling with the contributor process of the 2024-25 FAFSA. Together, Heather and the student worked through the issues and some of the identified struggles for married students.
“After our conversations, his FAFSA is now successfully completed, and I can award him his student loans,” Heather wrote. “He uses this money for living expenses, so we needed to get this resolved, and quickly. His response back to me — ‘Oh fantastic, thank you! I appreciate you putting so much into looking into the issue’ — reminded me why I do what I do.”
Brenda Hicks, FAAC®, director of financial aid at Southwestern College, shared a story when a young student came into the office in tears. The student was having difficulties completing the FAFSA and was concerned about having to work two jobs to pay their bills. Brenda said she sat down with the student, and in 10 minutes, their FAFSA problem was resolved. Brenda walked the student through their financial aid offer, showing them how their financial aid package would enable them to quit one of their jobs.
“The person that left that room was an entirely different person than the one who entered,” Brenda wrote. “Moments like this make all the difficulty worth it.”
Lindsey Campbell, executive director of financial aid, advising, and enrollment at Colorado Mesa University, shared that her institution developed a strategy and campaign to issue financial aid offers to students amid processing delays due to FAFSA simplification. The campaign, titled The Wait is Over, is an early award process built on a CMU financial aid calculator, which allows students to estimate their grant and scholarship awards and to actually receive an early financial aid offer based on family income information.
“We are proud to say this campaign and strategy has worked as we are enrolling our largest class in CMU history this fall,” Lindsey wrote.
Tina Lamb, FAAC®, director of financial aid and scholarships at the University of Florida, shared that her institution launched the Gator Spirit Scholarship. The scholarship was created in response to the current delays and complications with the 2024-25 FAFSA and aimed to reduce the anxiety associated with financial planning for college, Tina wrote.
The Gator Spirit Scholarship is offered to Florida residents with exceptional financial need as determined by self-reported income on the Common App and is offered for the freshmen academic year only. According to the institution, it is a scholarship only for the 2024-25 aid year and will be supplemented by other aid when the student’s FAFSA is received and processed.
Tina shared that the University of Florida has offered a total of $3.2 million to 354 low-income students who were either unable to complete the FAFSA or were in groups who experienced significant errors and would be blocked from being awarded federal aid, such as those from mixed-status families.
“The effort has been a great success,” Tina wrote. “The yield of these students was 42% – an outstanding achievement considering that they were the students most impacted by the FAFSA submission and processing issues and could have easily opted out of higher education or been seriously under matched.”
Aurie Clifford, assistant director of Title IV compliance at Pima County Community College District, shared several initiatives Pima Community College in Tucson, Arizona, created to help students and their families navigate the 2024-25 FAFSA.
That includes a virtual advisor used to connect students to a Student Information System (SIS) to give them “real time” answers to questions 24/7. Additionally, the financial aid office at Pima County Community College worked with the bursar office to develop a process that would hold a student’s schedule and place while they are trying to complete the 2024-25 form.
Her institution also initiated a call campaign where staff were responsible for calling and emailing 50 returning students regarding their 2024-25 FAFSA completion. This campaign increased FAFSA completions tremendously, Aurie wrote.
Pima Community College also partnered with the Arizona Board of Regents, who work with the National College Attainment Network (NCAN), to publish FAFSA events statewide to help increase FAFSA completions. Her aid office also participated in an institution-wide “Super Saturdays,” an event where her aid office focused solely on whatever requests or help students who walked in that day needed.
“This year has been one challenge after another, but our team has stayed true with our heads pointed to getting our students through this successfully,” Aurie wrote.
Be sure to also check out NASFAA’s previous coverage on the reasons financial aid professionals are fulfilled by their work, and reasons why financial aid professionals love their jobs.
Want to share your own story on why you’re in the profession, or your institution’s financial aid initiative or projects? Reach out to [email protected].
Be sure to share how your aid office is celebrating Financial Aid Day on social media and send us photos of your celebration by this Friday afternoon for the chance to win a pizza party for your staff.
Publication Date: 10/17/2024
Helen F | 10/17/2024 8:59:03 AM
Congrats to all these wonderful colleagues on their efforts and impact! We didn't grow up to do easy work, but it sure can be rewarding.
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