Known for its warm hospitality and culture, Milwaukee hosted the 2024 National Association of Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA) Conference from June 16—19, 2024. Financial aid professionals and exhibitors from across the United States gathered to teach, network, learn, and share best practices to help the students we all serve.
Honoring a Financial Aid Legend
Draeger recently stepped down as President and Chief Executive Officer of NASFAA after serving as a leader within the financial aid industry for the past 14 years. He kicked off the conference by riding a Harley-Davidson down the center aisle as he made his way to the stage. He also ended the conference with closing remarks that left many of the attendees in tears. In his tenure at NASFAA, Draeger had a significant impact in the world of financial aid, and he will be missed by many.
Exploring Hot Topics
One session that many attendees talked about was Forecasting the Future: Strategies for Navigating Post-FAFSA Enrollment Challenges. This panel session brought together several higher education experts who discussed the challenges that schools and students have faced during the rollout of the 2024-2025 FAFSA. This has been a hot topic in financial aid for the last six to nine months.
Networking Milwaukee Style
ScholarNet was fortunate to send five team members to this beautiful city nestled on the shores of Lake Michigan. Milwaukee is also home to Harley-Davidson.
One evening, NASFAA hosted an event at the Harley-Davidson Museum, bussing attendees to the museum for a delicious, classic Midwestern meal of burgers and bratwursts (better known in Wisconsin as “brats”). After dinner, attendees could tour the Harley museum, sit on a Harley simulator, or take a boat tour down the river. It was a well-planned evening of fun and networking.
What the ScholarNet Team Heard
The ScholarNet team was happy to discover we had great traffic at our ScholarNet booth. Our location was perfect: Close to the coffee, food, and massage chairs!
We had many financial aid professionals stopping by our booth to introduce themselves. It’s always great to meet our customers in person. Many attendees also had questions about Portfolio Navigator, our data-driven portfolio management and target outreach tool. It was exciting to see our customers interested in helping to manage delinquency and default at their schools.
Director of ScholarNet/Central Disbursement Service Sales Mike Mutziger pointed out, “Besides talking about Justin Draeger riding into the opening session on his Harley, processing delays and Federal Student Aid were the hot topics.” He added, “Processing delays created a situation where schools all seemed to be going through the same thing. There was a greater sense of camaraderie among financial aid professionals as they met to get the newest updates and directives.”
Reach Out
For those of you who weren’t able to attend the conference, we hope our recap was helpful. We invite you to reach out to your representative at any time with questions about ScholarNet®, FastChoice™, or Portfolio Navigator. We hope to see you at a regional or state conference this fall.
