Summer Institute
by Cub Reporter, Camille Mongelli,
Oregon State University

The WASFAA Summer Institute was a great experience to learn about Financial Aid. It was also a great place to get to know other people within the profession and develop contacts.

Day 1: Small Group "Get to Know You" session provided an opportunity to see what a diverse group of people we were.

Day 2: Verlene! What can I say??!! It was a great presentation on the application process by Jack who was awesome and made the information fun to learn. Verification and Cost of Attendance were also covered in small group sessions.

Day 3: Federal Methodology turned out to be one of the most important sessions of the week. Most of us do not have to do hand calculations, so it was really helpful to discover what information is important in the equation. Pell Calculation, although jokingly named "Pell Hell" was really only survivable due to the slides and the information in the binder which, thankfully, I can refer back to later! Cultural Diversity was a very moving and emotional session for some participants. It was worthwhile to have this discussion and the participants were open and seemed fairly knowledgeable on the issue.

Day 4: This was a half-day and we were all eager to get through the day to the fun stuff! We covered Cash Management & Disbursement, Return of Title IV Funds, Professional Judgment, Record Keeping Requirements, Customer Service, Legislative and Regulatory issues.

During the Institute we also learned about calculating loans, packaging, and award notification. The banquet at the end of the week was a good time to meet and get to know the WASFAA Executive Council and State Presidents. It was also a nice time to see those people who had worked so hard all week be recognized and congratulated. I am so glad that I had the opportunity to participate in the 2000 session of WASFAA's Summer Institute. I learned a lot of valuable information and met some really great professionals in the field of Financial Aid!