THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF BENTLEY UNIVERSITY SINCE 1963
THE VANGUARD VOLUME LVVI ISSUE VI
COMING SOON!
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2015
An Opinion: Dealing with the Financial Aid Office Editor in Chief
“Don’t call me Roberts!” She gets agitated, raising her voice just loud enough to break restaurant etiquette. I was sitting across from my friend as she read one of her emails and could clearly tell what had just happened. Someone had emailed her, but had decided to refer to her by her last name instead of her first. I could understand and sympathized with her frustrations. The look of anger eventually subdued, but did not completely evaporate. I inquired, of course, as there was evidently more to be dealt with. “Financial Aid Office.” That was all she said for a moment, but that was all I needed to know. The words alone led me down a very ugly path on memory lane. I’ve been fortunate enough to have never needed financial aid, but it came as nothing short of a horror story to me. I’ve heard my friends complain countless times about their experiences, and the vivid descriptions of the hassle they’ve had to go through have made me question a
lot of things and made me thankful for what I have. Stories of missing documents were a frequency. In our business courses, we preach the concepts of six sigma and ISOs; yet internally, we can’t get the concept of paperwork right. Our peers and mentors sermonize getting back to people within 24 hours like it was the holy grail of emailing, but it takes days for people to get responses. The idea that documents that were once reported being received and recorded on multiple occasions suddenly go missing sends chills down
my spine. The stories of being charged late fees because the correct information was not relayed to accounts payable shocks me; it’s the most basic and first thing anyone would do. I’ve been unfortunate enough to hear of incidents such as getting denied financial aid despite it having been approved 3 months prior. I’ve heard stories of people spending all of summer trying to figure out some sort of paper work out that should’ve taken 5 minutes in totality. Efficiency and effectiveness are reoccurring themes across our General Business
curriculum, but apparently it’s only something preached and not practiced and we, as students, still have to deal with this mess. At some point, you’d think someone would’ve compiled all the complaints and issues and thought of an enhancement system. You’d hope that some of our seasoned business consultants and professionals would’ve thought about better automating the processes so that the issues I hear about on a daily basis wouldn’t occur. I bring this up not because I would love to personally attack the Financial Aid department,
Financial Aid is a great tool for students, but it comes with hassles.
Courtesy of mssu.edu
BY Usama Sailm
but because the short stories are now turning into volumes of novels. There needs to be a point where someone needs to take a stand. My friends who rely on financial aid won’t do it; they need it, and they can’t risk a Bentley education for a few words exchanged. So here I stand, not a hero, but a concerned citizen of Bentley, asking those in charge to better our systems. Your students, those you depend on for your high rankings, and those that depend on you for a future, stand behind me in the shadows and they too plead; do something. Her forehead extends, and her head falls into her hands; it was far from over yet. On her to-do list that spans the length of her Lenovo’s screen, she quietly adds, “financial aid papers”, whispers something in muffled sounds to herself, and that’s that. That’s her stand. I talked to her a couple of days later, showing her what I had written. “I have friends that have horrors,” she said. I can only imagine worse. I plead as I have pled before: someone, do something.
A closer look into the Ferrera Fellowship at Bentley BY jennifer wright News editor
This summer, two Bentley University students worked at non-profit organizations as Ferrera Fellows. They were the third set of fellows from the Ferrera Public Service Fellowship, which was established in 2013 to recognize Professor Gerald R. Ferrera’s retirement. This year, Alex O’Halloran (’16) worked at Perkins School for the Blind and Kyla Reslock (’17) worked at KeySteps C.N.A. Program. The Ferrera Fellowship was established by Professor Ferrera’s son, David L. Ferrera. Wanting to honor his father’s 45 year service as a teacher and a scholar, David worked with his mother, Judith A. Ferrera, to establish the program. David decided to set up the fellowship because of his father’s dedication to service. Professor Ferrera had told him that one of the most memorable experiences
he had while teaching was bringing a group of students to a maximum security prison as part of his Law and Society course while discussing the rights of prisoners and the rights of the poor. This story sparked David’s desire to set up the fellowship. The Ferrera Fellowship allows two Bentley University students to receive $2,500 grants every summer to work at a non-profit organization for 8-10 weeks. Any sophomore, junior, or senior can apply. The fellowship also recommends that students have a G.P.A. of 3.6 or higher, excellent communication skills, other skills that “align with the needs of a specific Host Organization,” previous community service experience, and a commitment to continuing public service after graduation. Before their fellowship begins, the students attend a workplace ready workshop with Career Services to ensure they’re prepared for their new
position. After the summer, fellows attend a program hosted by the Ferrera Public Service Fellowship Committee to explain their project, the impact they had on the organization, and what they learned at the fellowship. The two fellows also prepare a short report to present to students, faculty, and their agency’s board of directors on their experience. The fellowship goes beyond simple volunteering or even an internship. According to Professor Ferrera, fellows “are going to make a contribution… in helping to strategize or bring about the mission that the agency is all about.” A volunteer, who has limited hours, is unable to make such an impactful change, and the non-profits working with the Ferrera Fellowship do not have the funds to pay for an intern on their own. Although the fellowship was meant to commemorate Professor Ferrera’s retirement,
he stresses that students don’t have to wait until retirement to give back to their community. Fellowships such as the Ferrera Fellowship give students the ability to dedicate time to working with non-profit organizations and government organizations while still young, applying the skills they learn in the classroom to real-world problems. Reslock, who worked at KeySteps C.N.A. Program, said of her choice to participate in the fellowship: “I thought I could make more of a difference working for a small non-profit than for a larger one that could afford to pay me. [This fellowship] was a way of being able to go where I would be most needed and get paid for it.” Although his son setting up the fellowship was a surprise to Professor Ferrera, he firmly believes in it and has high hopes for participants. “My hopeful expectation for a fellow would be that they will not only
develop a new outlook on the role of non-profits in society, but would come back with the confidence that they’d made a contribution.” And the fellows have made a difference. This summer O’Halloran analyzed Perkins’ $290 million endowment profile, proposing a centralized process for future budgeting implementation. Reslock led a C.N.A. (certified nursing assistant) course for twelve students, eleven of whom spoke English as a second language. After the course, four of her students took and passed the C.N.A. exam. The Ferrera Fellowship is currently accepting applications for its 4th year. Applications can be submitted on BentleyLink by November 20th, and the Ferrera Fellows will be announced on March 1, 2016. The 2016 Host Organizations include: Perkins School for the Blind, Global Smile Foundation, St. Francis House, KeySteps, Inc., and The Learning Center for the Deaf.
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FEATURES 6
OPINION 8