South Dakota

SDASFAA celebrated our 2006 Annual Conference in Watertown, SD March 27-29 with the theme "Service to Our Students". President David Martin, SD School of Mines and Technology, presided over the meeting; and the members had an opportunity to hear from Jack van der Geest, a survivor of German concentration camps during WWII; tour the Redlin Center where Watertown, SD native Terry Redlin’s many famous originals may be viewed; and discussed the implementation of College Goal Sunday in 2007. Several interest sessions were held and information learned, ideas exchanged and fun was the result of our conference on Service to Our Students. We were honored to have RMASFAA President Sally Schuman join us and discuss RMASFAA leadership opportunities and the importance of contributions from many benefiting and strengthening the organization overall while also improving individual development.

SDASFAA Recognizes Deserving Members

• Outstanding Service Award – Clarence Shoemaker, University of South Dakota
• Douglas Steckler Professional Development Award – Mary Anne Whitman, Education Assistance Corporation
• Val Weisser, Presentation College, was presented with the SDASFAA Past President's Award for 2005.

Many deserving members were recognized for years of service to SDASFAA from 10 years to 35 years!

More about SD College Goal Sunday
SDASFAA members, along with volunteers from various South Dakota organizations, are planning for the first College Goal Sunday programs to be held at twelve South Dakota sites on February 18, 2007. The Lumina Foundation is providing significant funding for the first three years for the College Goal Sunday program. NASFAA, through the leadership of Marcia Weston, is providing administrative and program support for the thirty-four participating states in the College Goal Sunday program.

At the SDASFAA 2006 Spring Conference, Jay Larsen (College Goal Sunday Coordinator) and Carolyn Halgerson (Communication Contact) provided information and requested suggestions, comments, and assistance from the membership. The assistance of the SDASFAA membership was truly impressive as all committees and task forces had volunteers for various leadership and committee responsibilities. Thank you to the SDASFAA membership.

Changes and Additions to SDASFAA
University of Sioux Falls – Rachel Gunn, after several years as Assistant Director of Financial Aid at the University of Sioux Falls, is entering a new chapter in her life and will be seeking part-time work to spend more time at home with her family. Director Laura Olson and SDASFAA Treasurer is excited to have a veteran student services colleague from USF join their office staff. Mary Fedders is the new Assistant Director of Financial Aid. She is looking forward to continuing her work with students at USF in her new role and meeting SDASFAA and RMASFAA colleagues.

From Citibank – Citibank would like to introduce Kelli Johnson as our newest Account Manager for South Dakota and Nebraska. Kelli comes with over ten years of experience at Citibank, and looks forward to working with each of you in her new role. Carolyn Halgerson will be concentrating on schools in North Dakota and Iowa; however, she is still available and located in SD.

Stork Report from Colorado Technical University – Emily and Justin Studenski welcomed Austin Daniel on May 1. The best May Basket one could receive at 2:26 p.m. on May 1st. Austin weighed 8 lbs 1 oz. and was 20 ½ inches long. Congratulations from all of us in SDASFAA!

Many members plan to attend the RMASFAA Summer Institute and NASFAA in Seattle. We look forward to seeing many of our RMASFAA colleagues at both! Have a great summer.

North Dakota

2006 NDASFAA Awards Announced
The 2006 NDASFAA Spring Conference was held at the Spirit Lake Resort and Casino in Fort Totten, North Dakota over March 29-31, 2006.

NDASFAA is pleased to announce our membership award winners for 2006:

Rookie of the Year – Brenda Zastoupil, University of Mary

President’s Award – Margery Michael, Jamestown College

25-Year Awards –	Paula Carlson, Education Assistance Corporation
	Donna Seaboy, Sitting Bull College
	Ellen Welke, Education Assistance Corporation
	Kathy York, North Dakota State University

Ruth Gress, former Financial Aid Associate at Dickinson State University, received a Special Service Award for her 23 years of dedicated service to North Dakota’s financial aid community.

Kansas

Kelly Hoggatt, Director of Financial Aid & Student Records at Manhattan Area Technical College, will become their Vice President of Student Services on July 1, 2006. She plans to continue her involvement in KASFAA and RMASFAA.

Julie Cooper, Johnson County Community College, was selected to participate with the NASFAA "Best Practice" project and she has been doing that for several months. She was recently given an EXCEL award at JCCC for her work with the NASFAA "Best Practices".

Also, she has been asked to do a presentation in Maine to the Higher Ed Council of Maine as a result of her work with NASFAA!

Nebraska

Metropolitan Community College has two new administrators on board, Rhonda Carlson and Laura Thayer-Mencke. Metro is excited to have both and look forward to a great year!

Northeast Community College has just increased their staff by one! Lynette Finley has been hired as Financial Aid Assistant. After nine days in the office, she was off to Summer Institute!

Laura Thayer Mencke left Doane College Lincoln and is now working at Metro Community College in the financial aid office. Mary Theobald is now employed at Doane College Lincoln.

Utah

The UASFAA Conference held at Salt Lake Community College, April 26 – 28 was a great success. The theme was “The Financial Aid Frontier" and SLCC provided unusual decorations and atmosphere for a rootin’, tootin’ good time! The sessions were very informative, the food was a huge hit and a wonderful time was had by all.

One of the highlights of the conference was the entertainment for Wednesday night’s backyard bar-b-que. Nino Reyos, Native American performer best known for his performance in the 2002 Winter Olympic Games opening ceremonies, performed his flute music and introduced us to native song and dance, the perfect end to a day in the Wild West.

Utah is excited to host the RMASFAA conference this fall and we look forward to seeing you all there.

Colorado

Colorado Happenings
By Marty Somero and Linda Crook

At the state level:
As reported last time, state higher education leaders have continued to work/debate with the State’s Financial Aid Advisory Committee over the future direction of state financial aid. The Colorado Commission on Higher Education (CCHE) ended up passing a plan that would take the discretion of awarding within certain guidelines away from the institution and devise a system that would award directly to students starting in 0708. The amount of the awards and the process are still in the works and discussion has been and may very well continue to be lively.

In the mean time, there has been some good news for a change in terms of funding. The upcoming and final year of the old need-based aid program will see an influx of ten million new dollars. Of course, discussion as to who gets how much is on-going and interesting to say the least.

At the school level:
Pueblo Community College has hired Anthony Martinez as their newest Financial Aid Advisor. Anthony will be attending RMASFAA Summer Institute to get a background in financial aid to go with his education in accounting and experience on a college campus.

Joining the financial aid staff at Mesa State College (Grand Junction, CO) during the past year were Jon Wilson, who previously was the Director of Financial Aid at Colby Community College in Colby, Kansas; Carol Lawrence, who was previously the Associate Director of Financial Aid at the University of San Diego in San Diego, CA; and Jamie Penry, who previously worked for the Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C. and is a Mesa State College graduate. Jamie and her husband Josh are the proud parents of a baby girl, Marian Elizabeth Penry.

Rejoining the staff on a temporary part-time basis is Jannifer Connely, who previously worked in the financial aid office at Mesa State College from 1994 to 2001 (and who was also previously at Western State, Gunnison, CO till Mesa was able to ruthlessly or sadly easily able to out-bid us for her great service/commitment to students.) Welcome back Jannifer!

David Wing left the financial aid staff at Mesa State College to join the IT staff.

Kathaleen Recker, Wells Fargo representative and former Mesa State College Financial Aid Counselor, spent the Spring Semester coaching the Women's track team at Mesa State College.

For those who have yet to meet the new Director of Financial Aid at CSU-Pueblo, Sean McGivney reports that,“I’ve been here for 4 months now, and things are going swimmingly”.

Nellie Mae announces Lisa Castro’s re-location from California to Colorado as the new Regional Account Executive for Nellie Mae Student Loans, responsible for Wyoming, Nebraska, Colorado and western Kansas. Lisa is glad to be back in the RMASFAA region!

Finally, it is with great sorrow that I share the passing of a colleague and friend, Victor Vigil. Many of you may have been acquainted with Victor from CAFAA or his work at Adams State or DU. He had worked as an assistant financial aid director at Adams State College in Alamosa, CO. He was a way-too-young 48 and a very kind and gentile soul. May he rest in peace.

At the Association level:
The lazy days of summer have just begun and yet there is nothing lazy about CAFAA. Since the update, our members have participated in several events that are important to note. Two spring training workshops were conducted by the Professional Development Committee. The first one, for support staff, was held in April at the Daniels Fund, and the second one, for professional members, was held in May at the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design. Both were well attended and provided members a chance to learn about new HERA regulations and to network with colleagues.

A second ongoing event is planning for Colorado’s College Goal Sunday to be held on February 11, 2007. The Steering Committee meets monthly and continues to make plans for outreach, publicity, and sites. The 10 sites that have been selected are Alamosa, Colorado Springs, 3 in the Denver area, Ft. Collins, Grand Junction, Greeley, La Junta, and Pueblo. Karon Johnson, formerly of CU-Boulder and site coordinator, has gained the commitment of local folks in each town to serve as local site coordinators, and within the next month, the actual local sites will be chosen.

Montana

We held our annual state conference in Great Falls April 19-21. At our banquet, we honored two recent retirees with Lifetime Achievement awards. Our two retirees are Melina Hawkins from MSU-Billings and Bonnie Whitehouse from Flathead Valley Community College. Melina has been in financial aid since 1979. In addition to her Lifetime Achievement award, Melina was also the recipient of a Special Services award for all of her work within MASFAA. Bonnie will be retiring in September and has 19 years in financial aid.

Another Special Services award was given to Terri Gruba from the University of Montana – Missoula. For the first time in recorded history, Terri was left utterly speechless when she received her award.

On a personal note, for all who know and love Brenda Sebastian, Brenda has announced her engagement. An April 21st wedding is planned for 2007. Mark the date on your calendars!