In 2016, Surbhi Patel, Director of Goodwin College’s Academic Success Center, reached out to Greg Jordon in the Advancement Office to suggest coordinating efforts to increase student awareness of financial support through Goodwin College Foundation Scholarships. Patel and Jordan, along with Director of Development Holly Winters, met to discuss the scholarship-related questions students were raising at the Academic Success Center and how the two departments might collaborate.

During the 2016 fall semester, they facilitated workshops designed to help students prepare to apply for Foundation scholarships. By the end of the semester, it was apparent that students needed support not only applying for Foundation scholarships, but for researching other available scholarship resources as well.

The addition of Director of the Hoffman Family Library Susan Hansen and Financial Literacy Coordinator Veronica Hills rounded out the expertise of the team. Discussions focused on creating awareness among students and the College community about new resources.

Hansen and the library staff created a destination webpage for students researching scholarship opportunities. Hills expanded student training on how to gather important documents and information required for scholarship applications.

The initiative turned into a strong multi-department collaboration to provide gap resources for Goodwin students. Subsequent spring 2017 workshops included input presentations from all four departments, time spent answering questions, and writing help for students to get a jump-start on their essays. A handout was developed emphasizing the resources available by department (read more) and an email (scholarships@goodwin.edu) that can be pushed out to students who have questions.

“Goodwin is great at finding creative ways to support our students. There is no more fundamental way to do that than by helping them identify financial resources so they can finish their intended programs,” stated Jordan. “These kind of collaborations, inspired by out-of-the-box, cross-departmental thinking, give our hard-working students every opportunity to succeed.”