Admissions/Recruitment 2. How the Creation of the New Student Aid Counselor Position Supported Schreyer Scholars

Sean Miller, Penn State University Schreyer Honors College

Recently the Penn State University Schreyer Honors College created an in-house student aid counselor position. This position is part of the development and alumni relations team. In their role, they Student Aid Counselor attends Schreyer Honors College information sessions to talk about student aid, meets with Schreyer Scholars and their families to discuss financial aid situations and awards all scholarships in the College, including those funded via philanthropy. By having this position, it has allowed the Schreyer Honors College to support Schreyer Scholars in a way that didn’t occur in the past. In addition, it has allowed the Honors College to strategically evaluate the unmet need of Scholars and use that information to solicit additional scholarship funds. In this session, Senior Director of Development and Alumni Relations Sean Miller will share how he worked with Schreyer Honors College colleagues and partners from the Penn State Office of Student Aid to create this position, recruit a candidate and successfully onboard this individual. In addition, Sean will share lessons learned after two years and how it has allowed the development team to better build scholarship proposals to reflect the current need of Schreyer Scholars.