Becoming financial aid experts with the power of SSS’s professional development and training.
Redwood Day is an independent, diverse K-8 co-educational school located in the heart of Oakland, California. Since 1963, Redwood Day has been committed to shaping the lives of young people in Oakland and its surrounding communities. Today, their program includes close to 400 students all learning together on a 4-acre campus – accompanied by goats and chickens.
Redwood Day’s mission is to inspire students to reach for their next challenge, embrace differences, and develop the intellectual and emotional courage to be ready for anything.
The goal of the financial aid program at Redwood Day is to expand access to new students and increase socioeconomic diversity at the school. Knowing that all families are making some level of sacrifice to afford an independent education for their students, Redwood Day endeavors to ensure that financial aid awarding is fair and accessible to students in need.
Their goal was to have policies and a sound process in place to ensure financial aid decisions are solely based on the numbers and facts only, with no outside factors or assumptions influencing their recommendations and no second-guessing when it comes time to finalize awards.
For over a decade they have relied on SSS as their financial aid assessment tool. As the economic landscape in Oakland is everchanging, so is the complexity of students’ financial needs. Redwood Day is seeing more families with increasingly complex financial circumstances and applications that require greater expertise to understand.
Being able to access and depend upon SSS’s vast professional development resources and their team of financial aid specialists has enabled Redwood Day’s director of tuition assistance to become more confident and proficient in the school’s financial aid decisions year after year. Understanding that no one person can learn everything at once, Ms. Bell-Carson has successfully learned new elements of SSS each school year to help her deepen her understanding of financial aid, as well as analyze complex financial aid applications while working in the SSS tools.
Through the SSS support system—including webinars, workshops, and one-on-one conversations with the SSS team—Bell-Carson continues to elevate her depth of expertise in financial aid applications. Additionally, by growing connections with other financial aid directors who use SSS, she has gained deeper knowledge of both SSS and the financial aid discipline, becoming a highly informed financial aid officer.
Becoming a true financial aid expert has not only helped Redwood Day’s director become better at what she does every day, it has also significantly streamlined the school’s awarding process. By truly understanding and utilizing all the functionality available to her in SSS,
she comes to committee meetings fully prepared to communicate each family’s financial situation and reduce unnecessary discussion or confusion. In previous years, they had to set aside as many as eight hours for financial aid committee meetings; this past season they were able to achieve all their decisions within just 90 minutes using her knowledge, preparation and expertise.
Bringing everything she’s learned about financial aid to the table, when she recommends an amount, Ms. Bell-Carson has the data-driven knowledge she needs to back it up. Even when she changes an award, she knows exactly why. When discussing a family’s award, she can present each unique financial situation clearly, and the committee can rely on her expertise to make well-informed decisions with confidence, fulfilling their mission of administering financial aid with fairness.