Resource Center empowers students seeking financial aid

A dedicated space in the Office of Financial Planning gives all Elon University students an opportunity to search for scholarships and other forms of assistance with support from professional staff and trained student workers.

<p>A Resource&nbsp;Center in the Office of Financial Planning&nbsp;offers students an opportunity to search for scholarships and find answers to financial aid questions on their own. Trained student workers like Olivia Royer '18 and Omari Prescod '18&nbsp;are available to give advice and answer questions. Student workers will be the&nbsp;first point of contact for classmates.</p>
Need to identify and apply for scholarships? Have a question about the FAFSA? Want to know more about Pell grants? For students with these questions and more, a space inside the Inman Admissions Welcome Center is now available to help.

The Resource Center inside the Office of Financial Planning in the Inman Admissions Welcome Center consists of a bank of computers that students can utilize during normal business hours. Financial Planning staff and trained student workers can lend assistance in a moment’s notice.

Patrick Murphy, director of the Office of Financial Planning, said the space offers students a place to research financial aid options with assistance from financial aid experts just steps away.

The dedicated space was conceived four years ago as blueprints were drafted for the Inman Admissions Welcome Center, which opened in January 2015.

“I have always wanted a place in the office where we could sit down with students at computers to help them complete or fix issues with their FAFSA, or assist with searching for numerous outside scholarship opportunities,” Murphy said. “The construction of the Inman Admissions Welcome Center allowed us to create a space where we have the capability for a staff member to assist multiple students at a time.”

A resource center in the Office of Financial Planning also was a recommendation put forward this fall in a formal report by the Elon University Presidential Task Force on Black Student, Faculty and Staff Experiences. The report called for a center that would provide scholarship information for underrepresented students.

The Resource Center is open to all students from 8 a.m. through noon, or from 2-5 p.m., when the Office of Financial Planning is fully staffed.