Scholarship Recipient Thanks WASFAA
by Pat Peppin, Glendale Community College

First of all, I want to thank WASFAA for giving its members scholarship opportunities to further develop their skills. I won a scholarship to attend the NASFAA Leadership Conference in Washington, D.C. I want to let you know that WASFAA is the only association that offers this scholarship.

This year I am the Vice-President of the Arizona Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (AASFAA), and this coming year I will be President Elect of AASFAA. So, I need all the help I can get to be a good leader for my association. The NASFAA Leadership Conference is the perfect conference for anyone who is going to be President or Treasurer of their association. There were 78 participants and I think at the beginning of the conference we were all wondering, "What in the world did we get talked into?" The nervousness soon faded away when we got to know the other participants, the presenters, the individuals who put the conference together, and the people who work for NASFAA. NASFAA has a vast variety of resources to assist us in our leadership adventure. The people at NASFAA are really dedicated to making our work easier. I was really impressed with all their hard work, including the lobbying they do to keep financial aid thriving. One of the agenda items was an Open House Reception at NASFAA. We used the Metro to get there and on our way to the NASFAA offices, our future WASFAA President, Catherine King-Todd, gave us the slip (you may want to ask her about this). Tip for future participants: dress very, very warmly because it was freezing in March. I have never felt wind so cold in my entire life. It was great to mingle with the other participants and to get ideas from them about their associations. I made some new friends as well.

The session that I enjoyed the most was the Regional and State Exchange of Ideas and Issues. Our assignment was to come up with topics of issues facing state and regional leaders. Once the topics were listed we broke into small groups and discussed how our associations handled these matters. For example, ways to make new members feel welcomed. Florida has an Ambassador Committee that greets new members. At their last conference, they had a contest where the object was for new members to collect the most business cards from other members who attended the conference.

Another session was to meet our State Representatives. There were four of us from Arizona and we had two appointments with our representatives. We met with their aides and it was interesting. I was looking for more enthusiasm or knowledge from the aids, but we did get our point across and gave them information that we feel is important in the financial aid arena. During our visit, we asked for passes to the House of Representatives and Senate Gallery. When we went into the Senate Gallery, there was a session in progress. There was a gentleman really defending his case, looking more closely at this person, I realized it was the one and only Senator Edward Kennedy. I was so amazed that I was in the same room with Senator Kennedy. For future participants of this conference, I highly recommend that you ask for these passes when you meet with your representatives. You never know whom you will see. In the afternoon, we described our visits. Some individuals got to meet with their senators and one group had breakfast with their representatives.

I want to thank Pam Fowler and her committee for putting together this conference and making it very eventful. The presenters were extremely knowledgeable in their areas. After attending the conference, I am on the right path to becoming a better prepared President for AASFAA.

Once again, WASFAA, thank you very much for this opportunity. It has helped me tremendously.