Region VI report to Exec Council

 

September Meeting:

Region VI held a meeting on September 28th at Barnard College.  53 members attended. 1. In addition to general updates, there was a  Presentation on ACG and Smart Grants by Sandy Santana and Angela Van Dekker.

2. Several important discussions took place:

  • Discussion on need for volunteers, increasing membership attendance at meetings and participation in general.
    • Outreach to increase participation of CUNY members
    • Members not receiving emails -List serve and regional mailings.  Requested that an email reminder be sent to members to make sure they understood that they needed to check the regional list serve in order to receive regional news.
  • Both the Current and Original NYSFAAA Statement of Principles, as well as, the Proposed Statement of Principles were distributed and discussed. Many members were upset with the tone of the proposed document.  A significant and heated discussion followed.

 

High School Guidance Counselor Workshop  The workshop was held on November 16th at Fordham University – Lincoln Center.  143 counselors attended the workshop.  Topics presented were ACG/Smart Grants, Financial Aid 101, Filling the Gap, Interpreting the Financial Aid Award Letter, Chase Smart Start Scholarships and Professional Judgment.  Other organizations helping with the workshop were: Fordham University, SUNY FIT, SUNY MRC, CUNY Hunter, CUNY BMCC, NY Automotive and Diesel Institute, Wachovia, Sallie Mae and National Education. 

 

The workshop was sponsored by Academic Finance Corporation, Bank of America, Chase Education Finance, Citibank, First Niagara Bank, HSBC Bank USA, N.A., KeyBank, M&T Bank, Nellie Mae, Nelnet, Next Student, NYS Higher Education Services Corporation, Sallie Mae Education Trust, Sallie Mae New York, Student Loan Xpress and Wachovia Education Finance.

 

Training Survey of Members was sent to all region VI members. At this time 48 members have responded.

 

December meeting and holiday reception was held on Wednesday Dec. 13th after the HESC training. Approximately 89 registered.  Registrations had to be closed because of capacity issues. At the meeting, a series of updates were made.

  • Members brought up the statement of principles from the last meeting, as well as feedback from other regions. Strong feelings have been expressed. 
  • A very brief summary of the first ethics committee meeting sparked a discussion and concerns were voiced.
  • The region feels that it is important that meetings be held at least close to the city.  They want to have a stronger voice.  They have requested that regional representation and voting be more closely linked to the number of members in the region.  Members will continue to explore their options.

 

Tri-Regional planning has begun.  We have volunteers from each region and have contacted the members for potential sites for the following: May 3, 4, 10, 11.

 

Volunteers are:

Region VI –

Maria DeInnocentiis - Marymount Manhattan College mdeinnocentiis@mmm.edu

Justine Alessandroni –  Senior Counselor, Fordham University

Tel 718-817-2020

Fax 718-817-3817

Alesssandroni@Fordham.edu

 

Region V

Roberta Daskin, Associate Director of Financial Aid at Sarah Lawrence College

Tel (914) 395-2570
FAX: (914) 395-2676
rdaskin@sarahlawrence.edu

Michele Bolton Pace

 

Region VII

Ursula Duran, Account Manager -National Education –

e. uduran@nationaleducation.com

Tel.   646.383.4681

Fax.  646.383.4860

Cell. 646.285.7736

Angelica Esparza, Vice President Academic Finance Corporation

Tel 631-851-0262

Fax  631-851-0620

Cell 631-838-8589

a.esparza@afclending.com

 

a.esparza@afclending.com

Alesssandroni@Fordham.edu

rdaskin@sarahlawrence.edu

e. uduran@nationaleducation.com

mdeinnocentiis@mmm.edu