National Financial Aid Day is October 16
Millions of students each year rely on financial aid professionals to help pave their path to education. This October, we’re celebrating the achievements of the many talented and dedicated individuals who support students and their families.
What Are We Celebrating?
Financial aid professionals are awesome people with a long list of positive attributes. How many of these apply to you and your team members?
- Committed. They often put in long, hard days to help students find and access the funds they need to get their education—because they believe in education and its importance for everyone.
- Patient and kind. Financial aid professionals have their limits, like everyone, but they understand the high stakes for the students and families they serve, and they deal with a lot of intense emotions including anger and frustration. They care about helping students and families, so they work with them and on their behalf, advocating for them within a system that’s fraught with ever-changing rules and regulations.
- Constantly learning. Perpetual changes in the loan and grant programs, and repayment plans available for students and families, federal rules and regulations, and administrative policies and requirements impacting financial aid on campus mean education is continual for this group. Note that this is education and training they need to acquire while working crazy hours and often on-the-job.
- Number-crunching. Financial aid folks need to be able to work well with people AND be wicked smart with crunching numbers and working spreadsheets. This is a tricky skill set to find—especially in combination with a love for education and commitment to students that can survive the high-stress financial aid environment.
Thank You
We appreciate the dedication and hard work invested by you and your colleagues in the financial aid office every day. Many of our ScholarNet team members have previous experience working in a financial aid office themselves, but all of us know firsthand how important your role is in leading today’s students toward a brighter future.