January 11, 2008 Volume 11, Issue 2

Mapping Your Future is a national collaborative, public-service organization of the financial aid industry - bringing together the expertise of the industry to provide free career, college, financial aid, and financial literacy information and services for students, families, and schools via the web.

Mapping Your Future is supported by guaranty agencies (Sponsors) and lenders, servicers, and secondary markets (Friends members) in the Federal Family Education Loan Program. Through the support of Sponsors and Friends, Mapping Your Future is able to provide free services.

In this issue:

Calendar

Please make note of the following events (listed as Central Standard Time):

Mapping Your Future offers training-on-demand videos (vodcasts)

Schools using Mapping Your Future's Online Student Loan Counseling (OSLC) can learn more about the products anytime, anywhere with online training-on-demand videos.

The videos include audio instruction with a demonstration. The following training topics are available:

  • Approving additional users
  • Customization:
    • Add average indebtedness information to counseling sessions
    • Choose the questions borrowers must answer when completing counseling
    • Customize the counseling start page to include school-specific information
    • Determine whether student must complete a budget during the counseling session
    • Expand counseling to include financial literacy and money management tips
    • Require borrowers to complete all fields on the student form (not just those fields that regulations require)
  • ExitExpress (Stafford exit data to guarantors)
  • Reset the FAO Access Area password
  • Meeting regulatory requirements (sound only)
  • Retrieve paper counseling records
  • Export electronic counseling records

To access the videos, schools need to log into their secure FAO Access Area and click on the "Training-on-Demand Videos" link in the "In the News" box. The videos are in two formats: Windows (for the Media Player) and QuickTime (traditionally for Mac users).

Mapping Your Future staff also created a training-on-demand video for students, explaining the steps of completing a counseling session. The link to the video is located on step two of all counseling sessions and is located at mapping-your-future.org/downloads/StudentInstruct.wmv.

If you have questions or suggestions for training-on-demand topics, contact CariAnne Behr at carianne@mappingyourfuture.org or (573) 634-8641.

Show Me the Future continues to educate (and entertain)

Mapping Your Future introduced Show Me the Future® (showmethefuture.org), its free online life skills and money management game, in March 31, 2006.  Since that time, 30,003 have played the game, including individuals from all fifty states and various other countries. (6,274 have played in the last quarter alone.)

The majority of players, 16,734, was female and 12,143 players indicated middle school as their last education level completed. Missouri had the most individuals, 2,874, play the game, with Kentucky (1,664) in second.
Players are required to provide their school name, latest education level, and zip code—making it easy for Mapping Your Future staff to identify patterns. It is evident that schools, especially middle schools, are promoting and using the game.

To market and promote Show Me the Future, Sponsors and Friends can get a financial literacy education presentation, which includes Show Me the Future slides, and order bookmarks that feature both Show Me the Future and CareerShip, Mapping Your Future's online career exploration tool. To request the presentation. contact Sherry Hildebrand at sherry@mappingyourfuture.org or (512) 218-8131.

Order the bookmarks from the MYF store on the sponsor site:

sponsors.mapping-your-future.org/sponsors/index.cfm

User name: myf
Password: support

Click on "Store" on the menu at the top of the page

Show Me the Future is an interactive feature, designed for middle and high school students. It teaches life skills and money management and helps students understand that the decisions they make today can have a life-long impact. For more information about the game, contact CariAnne Behr at carianne@mappingyourfuture.org or (573) 634-8641.

Featured volunteer: Joseph Gorman

Joseph Gorman, outreach manager, for the New York State Higher Education Services Corporation (HESC), serves on the marketing and promotions team and assists with several of Mapping Your Future’s early awareness functions, such as the Early Awareness E-News, the Top 10 on the 10th Newsletter, and reviewing content for the early awareness section of the web site.  Joe has been involved with Mapping Your Future for a year now.

As outreach manager, Joe reaches out to middle and high school counseling throughout the state of New York to see what various trainings and assistance his organization can provide.  They provide in-depth professional development training to counselors, as well as providing financial aid information for students and families.  Lately, he has been coordinating financial aid nights.  Higher Education Services Corporation works in conjunction with the New York State Financial Aid Administrators Association in that they provide regional experts and financial aid administrators to assist with financial aid nights.

The one aspect of his job that Joe enjoys the most is meeting new people and working with others, both inside and outside of the office.  He feels privileged to work with many great professionals at Higher Education Services Corporation who are open to sharing their talents and knowledge.  Joe feels teamwork is key to providing the best services to their customers.

Joe first started working in default prevention and collections at Higher Education Services Corporation.  He learned early on that “life happens” to people, and anyone could have their loan default.  This insight helped motivate him in his current role, where he is able to help students find the right path to college and understand their rights and responsibilities in receiving financial aid — getting them on the right track early.

Joe became involved with Mapping Your Future under the recommendation of a couple of his peers at HESC.  In the past, he had the opportunity to attend a few NCHELP Debt Management Conferences, so he had been somewhat familiar with Mapping Your Future.  Through his involvement with the marketing and promotions team, he has been able to witness the camaraderie and openness of the volunteers.  Everyone brings their experiences to the table and contributes to the cause.  Sometimes, just another view or idea is all it takes to springboard to a better way of doing something.

A little known fact about Joe is an amateur (Ham) radio operator and musician.  He currently plays in a band named “Band of Gold”.  But spending time with his family and two dogs are his utmost priority.  He doesn’t have a lot of spare time and does like to keep himself busy!

Joe’s father continues to be an inspiration to him.  His father recently had his second cardiac surgery at the age of 87 and currently is in a rehabilitation facility.  He still has a positive attitude even though he has had several medical challenges over the past several years and lost the love of his life nearly eight years ago.  He is an amazing man indeed!.

Even though Joe has been volunteering for Mapping Your Future for a short time, he has found a niche in the marketing and promotions team. Joe also enjoys providing assistance with the early awareness content and features.  The leadership and staff value Joe’s enthusiasm and on-going support!

Early-bird registration deadline fast approaching

All Mapping Your Future Annual Conference attendees that register before the early bird deadline of January 31, 2007 will be entered in a drawing for a free conference registration fee and will be able to take advantage of the early bird registration fee of $160.  For those that register after February 1, the fee increases to $185. To take advantage of this opportunity register now for the Mapping Your Future 2008 Annual Conference, Explore the Past, Discover the Future, to be held April 23-25, in Boston, MA. 

The registration form can be found on the Mapping Your Future sponsor site:

sponsors.mapping-your-future.org/sponsors

Username: myf
Password: partners08

Click on "Annual Conference" under "Event Links and Information".

The Mapping Your Future conference offers the following:

  • Professional development - Grow in your career and benefit your agency.
  • Education - Attend sessions on specific topics, such as project management, that will benefit you in your current position and prepare you for future challenges.
  • Inspiration - Speakers will inspire you in new ways, bringing ideas on how to handle challenging situations on your job and in our industry.
  • Guide to Mapping Your Future services - Learn how to fully benefit from all the services that offer through your support of Mapping Your Future and to share those benefits with the schools and families you serve.
  • News of industry trends - Find out about what is going on in our industry and how those trends may impact you and your agency.
  • Team work and networking - Network with team members, share ideas, and discuss common issues.

We hope to see you there!

Still time to register for the winter quarterly meeting

It's not too late to register for the Mapping Your Future winter quarterly meeting, scheduled for January 17-18, 2007 at the Hilton Savannah DeSoto (Savannah, GA),

The agenda has been set and now is available on the sponsor site.  The group will be discussing many topics including the balanced scorecard, an update on ExitExpress, trademarks and URLs, regulations, and the web site redesign — to name a few.  For a view of the complete agenda and information on making your hotel room reservation, visit the sponsor site:

sponsors.mapping-your-future.org/sponsors/

Username: myf
Password: partners08

Click on "Winter Quarterly Meeting" under "Event Links and Information" on the right side of the page

There still is time to make plans to attend and register. There is no fee to attend quarterly meetings; however, you need to register so we'll have appropriate materials, food, and beverages.

If you have questions about the meeting, contact Sherry Hildebrand at sherry@mappingyourfuture.org or (512) 218-8131.

Register now to learn more about Online Student Loan Counseling

Mapping Your Future Sponsors and Friends have the opportunity to learn more about Online Student Loan Counseling today at 2 p.m. Eastern, 1 p.m. Central, 12 p.m. Mountain, and 11 a.m. Pacific.

Mapping Your Future staff members will use GoToMeeting, its webinar software, to demonstrate Online Student Loan Counseling and its features and services live.  Not only will attendees be able to see the tools and services provided, but they also will learn how to navigate to them.

Individuals are asked to register for this training, by 11 a.m. central, as the number of attendees is restricted for this training, allowing Mapping Your Future to offer an intimate training session.

For more information and to register visit the sponsor site at sponsors.mapping-your-future.org/sponsors/index.cfm

Username: myf 
Password: partners08

Click on "Monthly Training Program" under "Event Links and Information"

If you are unable to attend to the January 11 training for Online Student Loan Counseling, future trainings are available on the second Friday of each month. Topics vary and include the following:

  1. Guide to Services – provides a high level overview of Mapping Your Future and some of the early awareness, default prevention, and financial literacy tools and services.
  2. Online Student Loan Counseling (OSLC) – provides an overview of OSLC that includes customization options, School Express, Exit Express, and Servicer Express.
  3. Sponsor Site (intranet for Sponsors and Friends members) – provides an overview and how volunteers can take advantage of the tools and services provided on the sponsor site, including OSLC statistics and the Marketing Tool Kit.
  4. Integration of Applications - provides an overview of the various applications Mapping Your Future offers for integration and how your organization can add value by integrating them into your web site

Contact Sherry Hildebrand at sherry@mappingyourfuture.org or (512) 218-8131 for questions and/or if there is a topic you would like Mapping Your Future to offer.

Online Student Loan Counseling participation levels

Total school accounts: 3,033

Stafford entrance (English): 5,728,956 sessions
Stafford exit (English):1,561,029 sessions
Stafford entrance (Spanish): 5,708 sessions
Stafford exit (Spanish): 907 sessions
Perkins entrance: 405,475 sessions
Perkins exit: 128,391 sessions
Stafford and Perkins combined entrance: 90,423 sessions
Stafford and Perkins combined exit: 10,533 sessions
Nursing entrance: 2,555 sessions
Nursing exit: 1,146 sessions
Health Professions entrance: 833 sessions
Health Professions exit: 198 sessions
Grad PLUS entrance: 4,577 sessions
Grad PLUS exit: 243 sessions
Stafford and Grad PLUS combined entrance: 2,025 sessions
Stafford and Grad PLUS combined exit: 675 sessions
MI-LOAN Program Information Guide (Powered by MYF): 337 sessions
WEF Guide to Private Loans (Powered by MYF): 359 sessions
MGSLP Money Management Counseling (Powered by MYF): 277 sessions
FAME Alternate Loan - Money Management Tutorial (Powered by MYF): 72 sessions
Total completions: 7,944,723 sessions

 

The Mapping Your Future sponsor site (sponsors.mapping-your-future.org/sponsors) serves as a resource for both Sponsors and Friends members. Essentially, it's an Intranet for volunteers. You must enter the user name (myf) and password (partners08) to access the site.

Mapping Your Future, Inc. | PO Box 5176, Round Rock, TX 78683-5176 | MappingYourFuture.org