My Debt Story

All TRIO programs are required to provide financial literacy as part of their programming. The Earn.org is a great site to get information for your programs. Also, they have great video segments on their famous mydebtstory competition from last year. The videos can be accessed here.

National Military Family Association Scholarships

Please pass this on to military vets and their families. This scholarship is available for spouses of active duty or reserve uniformed service members. More information can be accessed here.

Interest free student loans from the Hattie Strong Foundation

This is probably one of the oldest student loan programs in the country. It only operates at six universities in the country. And they are all in the DC/MD area. You can learn more about the interest free student loans here. The next deadline is Jan. 15th.

Question about Pell Grant eligibility for felony drug offenders

I recently received an email asking me to explain the regulations governing eligibility for Pell Grants for individuals convicted of felony drug charges. First, you can be eligible for Pell grant if you have a prior felony drug conviction. However, it depends on the type of drug conviction, the date of the conviction, if the conviction occurred while receiving Pell grant aid, and whether you have successfully completed a certified drug rehab program. Here are some basic rules:

• If you were convicted of possession of illegal drugs for the first time, you won’t be eligible for federal aid until at least one year since your conviction.
• If you were convicted for selling for the first time, you won’t be eligible for federal aid for at least two years from the date of your conviction.
• If you have more than one offense for selling or more than two offenses for possession, you can only regain eligibility after you complete an approved rehabilitation program.

My advice would be to fill out the 2011-2012  Student Aid Eligibility Worksheet for Question 23 to access eligibility.

Top 50 companies that employ HBCU students and graduates (2011)

Since 2002, HBCUconnect has been working with thousands of companies and organizations to assist them in their efforts to reach students and graduates of Historically Black Colleges and Universities. You can find the top 50 employers of HBCU students and graduates for 2011 here.

40 Awesome Conferences for Forward-Thinking Professors

One of the advantages of maintaining a blog that is widely read by a number of professionals is the volume of  emails I get about conferences. Sometimes I have to shift through the emails to come across a gem. I received an email yesterday highlighting upcoming conferences in higher education. It is published by onlinecollege.org. The conference list can be found here.