Final Project
Understanding how the financial aid process works is just the beginning. Implementing a comprehensive program that will convey that information to parents and students is the real job. Your “project” throughout the course will be to outline, develop, and present methods for implementation of a financial aid literacy program at your institution or for your private clientele. This project does not require that you actually implement this program, but rather outlining how this could be done.

You will first describe the needs of your or a hypothetical student population / clientele.
Describe how you could best address these needs.
What would be the best method(s) to communicate with your population?
Would you recommend workshops, video, web-cams, e-mail, social networking?
Will this work for your population?
What types of information does your population need to know about the financial aid process and how would you provide this?
What resources would you provide for your population?
Are there community resources which you would tap to provide information?

These are just a multitude of the questions you could address in your final project. This could include proposals for finding the resources, both material and financial, as well as administrative support for implementation. Perhaps there is already a program in place at your organization, and if so your project could be to describe and critique the program and add suggestions for improvement. This is a very open ended project. I would like it to be a capstone which would benefit you in being a more effective counselor in the financial aid process. The final project is due March 23. You can chose to write a report (should be no more than 5 pages) or create a PowerPoint presentation. If you create a PowerPoint presentation you must include a one page overview that addresses the questions outlined above (The 1 page outline is worth 10 points). You can use the resources provided throughout the course if you wish. Grading of your final project depends on how you adapted your program to the specific population which you describe. How comprehensive the program is in terms of limitations which you may have at your organization or hypothetical institution. Extra credit may be given if you create handouts that supports your project.

Final Project
Understanding how the financial aid process works is just the beginning. Implementing a comprehensive program that will convey that information to parents and students is the real job. Your “project” throughout the course will be to outline, develop, and present methods for implementation of a financial aid literacy program at your institution or for your private clientele. This project does not require that you actually implement this program, but rather outlining how this could be done.

You will first describe the needs of your or a hypothetical student population / clientele.
Describe how you could best address these needs.
What would be the best method(s) to communicate with your population?
Would you recommend workshops, video, web-cams, e-mail, social networking?
Will this work for your population?
What types of information does your population need to know about the financial aid process and how would you provide this?
What resources would you provide for your population?
Are there community resources which you would tap to provide information?

These are just a multitude of the questions you could address in your final project. This could include proposals for finding the resources, both material and financial, as well as administrative support for implementation. Perhaps there is already a program in place at your organization, and if so your project could be to describe and critique the program and add suggestions for improvement. This is a very open ended project. I would like it to be a capstone which would benefit you in being a more effective counselor in the financial aid process. The final project is due March 23. You can chose to write a report (should be no more than 5 pages) or create a PowerPoint presentation. If you create a PowerPoint presentation you must include a one page overview that addresses the questions outlined above (The 1 page outline is worth 10 points). You can use the resources provided throughout the course if you wish. Grading of your final project depends on how you adapted your program to the specific population which you describe. How comprehensive the program is in terms of limitations which you may have at your organization or hypothetical institution. Extra credit may be given if you create handouts that supports your project.