Facts are facts. (See RAL post dated March 18, 2017) But facts aren't everything.
It is popular practice when working with high school aged children to make them take a career assessment. Each time I have done one, the result I get is funeral director. I'm not sure what that means, but what I am sure of is that very few people leave high school thinking, "I want to work in college financial aid."In fact, I would venture to guess that most people don't even think of financial aid as a vocation. Financial aid people are an afterthought - like a bookshelf in the public library. They exist, performing an important function. But they and the job they do are nothing that anyone can remember with any accuracy - even after spending a good amount of time in their presence. And the interesting thing is, I think most financial aid people are ok with that.
A bookshelf, though it goes through life mostly unnoticed, feels important. It holds in its arms everything from Mike Mulligan and the Steam Shovel and Blueberries for Sal to Pride and Prejudice, Walden, and The Republic. Bookshelves don't care about your wealth, your looks, or your political and social prowess. Bookshelves care about making it easier to access the knowledge you seek.
I wandered into this profession in the summer of 2002, one year following the birth of my second son. I began my experience locked in a Colorado College residence hall with hundreds of financial aid people from across the Rocky Mountain region at an event called Summer Institute. Our purpose? To dive into the nine volume, regulatory handbook of "things you need to know" and "things you need to do" to be a good steward of federal taxpayer funds.At the front of the room teaching us were these people who knew what being a financial aid administrator was really about. And what became clear to me - and the reason I am still plugging away in this profession - is that being a good financial aid administrator has very little to do with regulations. Regulations change seemingly at the whim of whomever is currently in power in Washington DC. Learning them is important and necessary. But learning and following the regulations is not why we do what we do.
Rather, at the heart of a good financial aid administrator is the primal knowledge that there is potential in every individual. At the heart of a good financial aid administrator is the compelling desire to help those individuals wade through the volumes of regulations to gain access to the opportunities they seek. At the heart of a good financial aid administrator is the desire to fight to make the path smoother, simpler, wider, prettier so that it isn't so scary for those who may be intimidated by the thought of walking it. At the heart of a good financial aid administrator is the burning desire to serve.