As I wondered about what to share with you, I thought about my recent personal experiences and information we all need to remember and can relate to. Not necessarily work related, but more importantly about life.

During the past few months, I’ve come to realize that life is too short. I came to this realization after losing five friends in the past two months that had so much more life to live. They had plans but were not able to see them through.

As you know, MASFAP is celebrating its 50th Anniversary this year! Have you saved the date for the fall conference? If not, please add November 6-8, 2017 now to your calendar, because you won’t want to miss this amazing conference!

We will be Celebrating Our Past and Inspiring Our Future at the Lodge of Four Seasons, in Lake Ozark Missouri.

The 2018 MASFAP election results are in! Here are the newly elected officials:

President: Samantha Matchefts, University of Missouri – St. Louis
Vice President: Alexandria Miller, William Woods University
Secretary: Kim Cary, Ozarks Technical Community College
Treasurer: Becca Diskin, Missouri Southern State University
Delegate (3 Year): Charles Mayfield, Northwest Missouri State University
Delegate (1 Year): Scott Young, University of Missouri – Kansas City

Effective immediately, MASFAP has a new mailing address (since the UPS Store our box is located in is moving).

The new mailing address is:

The MASFAP Leadership Development group arrived today to Washington, D.C. for their financial aid advocacy trip – they are eager to begin their meetings!! Take a look at some fun pics as they arrived!

The first Thursday of each month leading up to MASFAP’s 50th Anniversary Conference is Throwback Thursday! Check out these pics and see if you can guess the year they were taken!

Here’s a fun group – Kelli Hartman, Brent Carpenter, Michelle (Pursel) Metcalf and Becca Diskin.

I was excited to hear that we have some relief for students and families this morning regarding verification requirements as a result of the recent suspension of the DRT. Have you read the exciting new Dear Colleague Letter out today about Changes to 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 Verification Requirements: https://ifap.ed.gov/dpcletters/GEN1704.html? I am grateful for all who have been advocating for relief in the verification process through the DRT suspension. This should help students as well as financial aid administrators as this new guidance will lighten loads in some ways. However, it could cause confusion for others.  I would love to hear what your offices are talking about today in light of the changes. Please comment to this blog!

 The last time I blogged, I was getting ready to compete in the Show Me State powerlifting competition. The week before I was slated to compete, I pulled a forearm muscle. When I was training, I didn’t really know what I was doing and just going off of what I would read from the internet. I learned one very valuable lesson….not to lift a week before the competition, as in nothing. This seems completely backwards to me, but as I usually learn the hard way, it’s a great way to pull a muscle or injure yourself during the competition if you don’t take a break. So, all last fall, I worked on healing my muscles and seeking out a weight lifting team that I could work with.

For the past several months I have been going to the gym and pushed myself to work out harder and lift heavier than I ever have before. Three days a week I am in a boot camp class at 5 am where we flip tires, sprint up hills and have done too many mountain climbers and burpees to count, among other various feats.  I know now that when push comes to shove, sure I can do 100 sit-ups, 100 squats, 100 push-ups and even 100 assisted pull-ups in 45 minutes. The other two to three days is when I lift with my new team.

A few weeks ago, Kayla Klein and I had the opportunity to head to the lake to present to high school counselors and admission representatives about Special Populations and spreading the word about the ins and outs of the MASFAP Money Challenge- High School Edition.  We had a great day presenting and networking with the MOACAC attendees at Tan-Tar-A Lake Resort.

In our first presentation titled Advising Special Populations, we had a good mix of both high school counselors and admissions reps from throughout the state of Missouri. I feel strongly that this is an important topic for high school counselors to be aware of and familiar with as they advise students. These special populations usually have to jump through hoops to obtain a high school diploma. When these students must share their story again and again, it can be difficult on them. Since these students already trust their high school counselors who know their stories and family,  these students feel so much more comfortable with the high school counselor rather than their brand new financial aid counselor that they have never met in person before. For me to be able to have the opportunity to connect with the counselors and help them advise their students regarding this topic was priceless. It was such a great feeling to be able to speak freely with this group and collaborate on helping students succeed – just awesome!

Today is Thursday, which means it’s MASFAP’s Throwback Thursday! With the 50thAnniversary of MASFAP this year, we are Celebrating Our Past all year. Check out this picture taken at MASFAP’s 25th Anniversary celebration. Can you name some of the amazing MASFAP people in this photo? Make a comment to this blog and name as many people as you can… the person who is able to name the most people in the picture wins a prize…

Today is the day in 1967 when it all began –  50 years ago – MASFAP!  Our members have experienced 50 years of advocating for students, collaborating with colleagues and lobbying state and federal agencies on behalf of our students. Oh, and let’s not forget all of the learning, stretching and growing professionally and personally together!

Members of MASFAP’s Early Awareness Committee joined the staff of Moberly Area Community College to participate in the annual UCAN2 event at the end of March.