Hurdles & Successes – Our Three- Phase Process Towards Increasing Scholarship Applications and Financial Support For Our Students Diana Minor – Director, Office of Financial Aid & Scholarships Marcia Starcher – Scholarship Specialist Saul Ramirez – Scholarship Coordinator

A.Staffing 1.Counselor position with scholarships as a program 2.Student assistant assigned B. Campus Scholarships 1.All colleges, departments, clubs, and organizations used their own paper application 2.Few applications were received throughout campus 3.Awarding was not coordinated with Office of Financial Aid a.Office of Financial Aid was not aware of the scholarship awards processed outside of our office b.Scholarship checks were sometimes given directly to students Phase 1 – Manual Labor

C. Student Process 1.Application was available on the Office of Financial Aid website 2.Student printed, completed and submitted application to our office 3.Student requested letters of recommendation separately D. Office Process 1.Massive amounts of paperwork for everyone a.Filed paper applications as they were received b.Received letters of recommendation separately c.Had to match letters of recommendation to application d.Filed completed packets 2.Mailed hard copy congratulatory letters for students 3.Ran out of storage space for application packets 4.Too much room for error with the possibility of losing paper Phase 1 – Manual Labor

E. Student Communication 1.Received a high volume of calls from students inquiring if their letters of recommendation had been received 2.Students were not notified if their scholarship application packets were complete F. Awarding Process 1.Our office received scholarship applications 2.Constant problem of not having enough qualified applicants to award 3.Scholarships often went unawarded 4.One general application for all 40+ scholarships awarded 5.Read all applications to determine who qualified for which scholarship 6.Often had to fly separate applications for specific scholarships 7.No tracking mechanism to capture scholarships awarded throughout campus Phase 1 – Manual Labor

G. Donors 1.No communication with campus 2.No thank-you letters 3.No input into the process 4.No funding updates regarding status of accounts 5.No donor recognition Phase 1 – Manual Labor

H. Statistics 1. Number of Scholarships Awarded a. On-Campus: 1,401 b. Off-Campus: 1,336 c. Total: 2, Funds Disbursed a. On-Campus: $1,785,373 b. Off-Campus: $764,429 c. Total: $2,549, Number of Students Awarded a. On-Campus: 1,175 b. Off-Campus: 642 c. Total: Average Scholarship Award a. $1,403 Phase 1 – Manual Labor

Phase II – Realization of Technology A.Staffing 1.Full-time scholarship Specialist 2.Hired Scholarship Coordinator a.Half-time counselor duties b.Half-time scholarship duties 3.Student Assistant B.Campus Scholarships 1.All departments, colleges, clubs, and offices flew their own scholarships 2.Everyone chose their own recipients 3.Upon request we created a hard copy version of our application for a department to use 4.No accountability to verify all scholarships were awarded throughout campus

C. Student Process 1.Students could access and submit an online application for over 40 scholarships 2.Once an application was begun, it had to be completed – could not save data 3.Changes could not be made once the application was submitted 4.Received calls from students asking to confirm if their scholarship application had been submitted successfully Phase II – Realization of Technology

D. Office Process 1.Hard-copy letters of recommendation were sent in separately from the instructors 2.Filed the letters of recommendation 3.Printed the applications and submitted them, along with the appropriate letter of recommendation, to the scholarship committees 4.Still received calls from students regarding receipt of their letters of recommendation 5.Letters of recommendation had to be matched to applications for scholarship committees 6.Still room for error – letters of recommendation could be misplaced/misfiled E. Student Communication 1.Mass s sent out by the Office of Financial Aid about scholarship application availability 2.Students could go online to check status of application packet a.Had to manually put this information in PeopleSoft for students to see b.Received calls from students inquiring whether letters of recommendation were received Phase II – Realization of Technology

F. Awarding Process 1.Our office received between 1, ,200 applications 2.Mailed hard-copy congratulatory letters to students 3.Fewer issues with not having enough applicants to award a.Recipients were found for more scholarships b.Some specialized scholarships remained unawarded G. Technology 1.Online scholarship application 2.Allowed us to run queries for qualified scholarship applicants 3.Technical issues with word count 4.Staff had no access to scholarship data Phase II – Realization of Technology

H. Donors 1.Some donors participated in the awarding process 2.Year-end report was created manually 3.Hard copy thank-you letters provided to some donors 4.Donors recognized in University Advancement publications I.Collaboration with Campus Partners 1.Collaborated with Student Accounts daily to ensure scholarship awarding and reconciliation 2.Collaborated with Directors of Development regarding marketing and scholarships 3.Worked with Foundation to ensure compliance 4.Increase in scholarship funding and campus support resulted in office name change to Office of Financial Aid & Scholarships Phase II – Realization of Technology

J. Statistics 1.Number of Scholarships Awarded a.On-Campus: 2,717 b.Off-Campus: 1,823 c.Total: 4,540 2.Funds Disbursed a.On-Campus: $3,278,229 b.Off-Campus: $1,183,517 c.Total: $4,461,746 3.Number of Students Awarded a.On-Campus: 1,787 b.Off-Campus: 816 c.Total: 2,608 4.Average Scholarship Award a.$1,710 Phase II – Realization of Technology

Phase III – Putting It All Together A.Staffing 1.Two, full-time scholarship staff members a.Scholarship Specialist b.Scholarship Coordinator 2.One service representative a.¾ time service representative duties b.¼ time scholarship duties 3.One ½ time scholarship analyst 4.One student assistant

B. Bronco Scholarship Application 1.All departments, colleges, offices, and clubs a.Use one common scholarship application b.Choose their own recipients 2.Students can access and submit an online application for over 400 scholarships 3.Students can return to the application and make updates anytime 4.Students receive automatic confirmation once the scholarship application is submitted 5.Letters of recommendation are requested and submitted electronically a.No letters of recommendation to file b.No calls from students about letters of recommendation c.Students can see on their application if letters of recommendation have been submitted d.No further issues with matching letters of recommendation with applications since everything is online 6.All scholarships are available for review online a.Departments are able to print hard-copy applications on their own 7.Reports can be run to track scholarship awarding Phase III – Putting It All Together

C. Student Communication 1.Students can go online to check status of application packet 2.Mass s sent out by Office of Financial Aid & Scholarships to notify students of scholarship applications available D. Awarding Process 1.The Bronco Scholarship Application has 6,000 – 7,000 applications 2.Automated congratulatory letters are ed to students 3.Most scholarships have adequate number of applicants 4.Few specialized scholarships remained unawarded E. Technology 1.Ability to run reports in Bronco Scholarship Application for scholarship awarding 2.Ability to track scholarships awarded and funds disbursed throughout campus 3.Bronco Scholarship Application allows for consistent reconciliation between Office of Financial Aid & Scholarships, Accounting and Foundation 4.Easy access to Bronco Scholarship Application for all staff Phase III – Putting It All Together

F. Donors 1.Donor module with Bronco Scholarship Application is now a possibility 2.Students will be able to read donor profiles 3.Thank-you letters are uploaded electronically to the application then sent on to donors G. Collaboration with Campus Partners 1.Collaborate with Student Accounts daily to ensure scholarship awarding and reconciliation 2.Collaborate with Directors of Development to provide student scholarship information 3.Work with Foundation to ensure compliance Phase III – Putting It All Together

H. Statistics 1.Number of Scholarships Awarded a.On-Campus: 2,726 b.Off-Campus: 2,072 c.Total: 4,798 2.Funds Disbursed a.On-Campus: $3,899,678 b.Off-Campus: $1,438,729 c.Total: $5,338,407 3.Number of Students Awarded a.On-Campus: 1,897 b.Off-campus: 857 c.Total: 2,754 4.Average Scholarship Award a.$1,938

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