Many of you may have noticed that there are quite a few changes happening in the Financial Aid world right now. A new legislature was passed stating that all schools are now required to switch their lending program to Direct Lending(meaning the government will now be providing Stafford loans as opposed to private lenders). Are you wondering how this will effect you?
The good news is that for the most part it will be seamless for students. You will be required to sign a
New Master Promissory Note (MPN) with Direct Lending, but other than that, things will remain the same in terms of how and when the aid is disbursed.
The real change will happen behind the scenes at the Adult Financial Aid office here at
Granite State College. We have been working feverishly to make sure we are ready for the July 1st deadline imposed by the government.
What was the reason behind the switch you ask? The intention is to provide increased funding for federal grant programs such as the Pell Grant. Now, rather than private lenders collecting origination fees from students and using them towards their own services, the Department of Education will now take the fees charged for the Stafford loan programs and funnel it back into the Federal Grant programs.
Also, over time, the Department of Education is planning to lower the Stafford Loan Interest rates, making educational loans more affordable for students.
In order to make the process of signing the new Direct Lending MPN easier for our students, the Office of Financial Aid will be making visits to the Rochester NH College, the Claremont NH College, the Conway NH College and the Manchester New Hampshire College to assist students and answer any questions. To find out the specific times of our visits, please contact the regional centers. Also, as always, students are welcome to stop in and see us at the Concord New Hampshire College at any time.
The Manchester Campus of Granite State College used to be in the old terminal building at Manchester-Boston Airport. Inside the beaufiful staircase with the mezzanine surrounding the second floor harkened back to the days when air travel was much new and still had a sense of leisure and prestige. Taking classes inside this building, one got a sense of the history of the airport, and the "classiness" that once was synonymous with air travel.
Things sure have changed in terms of flying nowadays.
Things have changed too at GSC. The Manchester NH classes now have a new home. The campus is now housed in an old refurbished mill building. I recently had the chance to visit the campus at 195 McGregor Street. The building itself is grand, the inside is beautiful. It has fantastic old, wide plank floors and high ceilings. Huge windows make the space bright and sunny and exposed brick is everywhere. The classrooms are spacious and parking is easy. This old mill building, like the previous campus in the terminal building, is steeped in history and full of charm.
While I'm no longer a student, I will remember fondly my time at the old airport building. The planes landing and leaving were part of our classroom environment. I am a little envious though of the students who will be at the new (though very old) building as they take their adult education courses. The work and activity that once took place when this building was a bustling mill can still be felt. Now, students get to enjoy this fabulous space while achieving their academic goals!
April 8, 2010 was a special day for Granite State College, as Dr. Todd Leach was elected to be our next president. This is an exciting time for all members of the GSC Community, as we find ourselves on the horizon of a new era, and the changes that will come with it. As I sat in the Manchester NH College, patiently awaiting the announcement with other audience members for the big news, I found myself consistently repeating this thought: "I can not wait to see what changes take place immediately, as well as the changes that will take place over time." Dr. Leach's first two years on the job will be my last two years with the college, so I look forward to participating in the improvements that he will implement.
For some audience members, this was their first exposure to the process of selecting a new president (the announcement being the end of the process). I was one of the lucky few in the room to actively participate in the process from end to end. In October, I was asked to be the student representative to the Presidential Search Committee. My first thought was that this was an amazing honor to be asked and to serve, but reality settled in very quickly. Our first meeting in Concord in November was an introduction to the rest of the search committee. Ed MacKay, Chancellor of the University System of New Hampshire, welcomed and introduced us to Trustee George Epstein, who would chair the committee. With the advice from our consultants, we mapped out a process that called for us to immediately begin to request applicants to express interest in the position, to interview in January and February, and finally to recommend three candidates to the Chancellor in March.
Each member was granted access to the email in box that resumes and cover letters were submitted to, and we were expected to return to our next meeting in December with a go/no go for each applicant. After logging into the account, my initial impression was that we had an extremely talented pool of approximately 70 potential candidates to choose from. Our first meeting in December carried the daunting task of whittling the list down to a manageable number of candidates. In January, we discussed the nearly 25 applicants who expressed interest after our December meeting, and interviewed two candidates. Through the month of February, we met three more times in Concord to interview candidates. After those sessions, we forwarded the names of three candidates that we as a committee felt that could be the next president of Granite State College.
Today's announcement was the culmination of a lot of hard work and tough decisions. The inherent stress that comes with the process of making these decisions increased as we came closer to a decision, yet some very nice relationships were forged among the committee members through the hours of deliberating. It was an honor to be part of this committee, and I send my most sincere congratulations to President Todd Leach of Granite State College.
What do you do with your spare time? If you are like most people, you probably don't have a lot of spare time. You are probably running from one thing to another. Maybe you have a job and a family and friends that you juggle your time for. But what about in the evening? Are you sitting in front of tv watching commercials for New Hampshire Colleges and Universities? Maybe an add for a Concord NH College, or a Manchester NH University caught your eye. But you say to yourself, "no way, not me, I can't go to college."
But why not you? Do you realize that you could be taking courses at home on your computer instead of watching tv? You could be enrolled in a course at Granite State College right now at home, or you could be in Rochester, Concord, Manchester, or any number of locations sitting in a classroom and learning new things.
Oh, I lost you again. You say to yourself, "I can't sit in a classroom. I am too ____," (old, tired, busy..) But what if you went to class one night a week? Everyone else in the room is just as busy as you. Even most of your instructors are working somewhere else during the day. They know what it is like to juggle responsibilities. So instructors give you work that is geared to help you in your profession, classmates support one another and suddenly, TADA! You have taken your first course.
Give it a try! Granite State is a place where adult learners can grow and learn and only by giving up a tv show or two!
Well, I'd finally done it. After talking about it and thinking about it for a couple of years, I'd finally committed to returning to school. I was going to be taking adult college classes towards my bachelor's degree. Now came the hard part - attending the Manchester NH classes, doing the work, learning new things, studying, oh and living the rest of my life too.
I had been counseled to start with a critical thinking class. It's a required class and many "newbies" start with it. It's a good way to get into the swing of college work. I tried to imagine what my first class would be like and could readily picture not having a word to say - which of course was wrong, I had lots to add!
I ordered my books and eagerly looked through them. One was comparable to a book of puzzles which was meant to get us to practice our critical thinking. As we went through our classes this book was actually a lot of fun. Word puzzles, math puzzles - it was satisfying to solve them. I do have to admit that there were a couple that escaped me - though I think most of us had some that stumped us. Not everyone thinks and reasons the same so it was interesting to see how others solved the puzzles.
We also studied two writings, one by Lincoln and one by Martin Luther King. We had to them and I found myself thinking about what I was going to write, the points I wanted to include, etc. It was actually a very creative process and as my paper went from thoughts to words on paper the confidence grew.
Our final assignment for the class was to read and analyze a novel by Steinbeck. We discussed in class how we might approach our papers. I recall one young woman's take on the novel that totally impressed me. She had seen something that made so much sense, but I had not seen it for myself. It was interesting for me to hear what others thought and how they were going to approach their paper.
I knew that I wanted to take a novel approach also and illustrate a theme that might not be immediately self evident. Again, I found myself thinking about my paper and the points I wanted to make. Submitting this final paper and being proud of what I had written was one of many milestones on my way to my adult college degree in behavioral science. Yeah me!
"It’s a kind of magic...
One dream one soul, one prize
One goal...
One golden glance of what should be...
One shaft of light that shows the way...
The bell that rings inside your mind, challenging the doors of time."
Queen - It's A Kind of Magic
What was the "bell" that went off in your mind that caused you to reflect on where you were in your life and where you wanted to be?
For me, it was the birth of my third child. I loved my role of wife and mother. I had always wanted and looked forward to raising a family. But one day, as I sat feeding the youngest baby, I thought "Is this all there is? Isn't there something more?"
In high school, the St. Joseph nuns offered me a golden glance of what could be, encouraging me to consider college, but they were ahead of their time. The thinking back then (the pre Ms Magazine era) ran something like this: sending a girl to college was a waste of money because she was only going to get married and have babies. And, in my family, there was also the issue of money or rather the lack of it. I'm sure there must have been financial aid back then, or at least something similar to it, but I knew nothing about such things. In any case, it wouldn't have mattered - my paycheck was needed at home.
So, graduating from high school, I worked on Wall Street for two years, eventually marrying and moving to New Hampshire. Three children and seven years passed before the "bell rang inside my mind" as the dream of a college education reawakened. And so, the door to my future was challenged, opening just a crack. Researching adult college courses in New Hampshire, I found the School for Lifelong Learning, as Granite State College was known back then (by the time I graduated, the name had morphed into the College for Lifelong Learning).
I met with an adviser at the Manchester NH college office who shed a shaft of light that pointed the way to achieving my goal. She mapped out a plan for my Associates Degree (because, at the time, working towards a bachelor's degree seemed such a huge, insurmountable challenge) and I got to work - one part time class at a time. Over the years, the magic continued.
Meeting kindred souls, people in my adult college courses who were dealing with the same day-to-day issues as I and aspired to goals similar to mine; befriending faculty who nurtured the flame of inquisitiveness burning inside of me and who helped me to discover the wonderful world of adult learning - all of this, and more, caused a seismic shift in my perception of what the future could hold for me.
The process of "challenging the doors of time" took thirteen years but I finally earned the prize - my Bachelor's Degree. The act of achieving my goal was so intoxicating, the magic so necessary to my being, that I decided to move on to the next "door" - a master's degree. All these years later, the magic continues to happen, doors keep opening.
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