Retiree Recognition For: Elizabeth Stallard
Title / Dept:
Director of Financial Aid Programs / Financial Aid
How did you get your start at LCC? What do you remember most from your first day/week/month?
I started at LCC in November 1994 as a Student Employee in the Student Loan Office. I remember being excited to work in an office - my first office job! I loved filing and shredding (back when we did that ourselves with the giant shredder in the back room in the SPS building (now known as MB) but quickly got bored and started learning more and more about processing loans and helping students. I was eager to learn and fascinated with this unknown and complicated world of financial aid processing.
Have you held different positions at LCC? How would you describe your career path and the role that LCC played in it?
After a few months as the student employee, I became a part-time loan specialist. I then held a variety of full time jobs such as loan supervisor, loan coordinator (twice), reconciliation coordinator - a position that no longer exists but handled R2T4, scholarships and Pell, associate director of operations and my current title, director of financial aid programs.
I fell in love with financial aid almost instantly. It was a huge logic puzzle, something I'd always loved. The intertwining of the regulations - which takes precedence? - the evolving, changing nature of it and the fact that it involved spreadsheets and customer service and forecasting and forensics meant that if I was bored with one aspect, there was always plenty of work to do for a few hours or days on another aspect!
I fulfilled my need to learn, to stretch my brain and to serve. To know whatever I was doing, be it a spreadsheet, reconciliation, developing a process out of regulatory language or directly working with a student... it mattered. It was helping someone be able to learn, to do what they were called to do.
What's your favorite memory from your time at LCC? Who are the people who made working here great?
My favorite memories at LCC center around friends and mentors. I remember Sandy Putkamer taking me to lunch and teaching me so much about how to (and how not to) navigate in the professional realm. I fondly remember paper files... and happily moving to paperless processing! Moving from SPS to Gannon, to WCP and then back to Gannon. Those times in the temp office in the WCP basement were wild and fun! I remember a small core group that sustained through the Oracle years, and how we supported each other and found laughter and camaraderie during that trying time. I just remember the people!
What are you looking forward to in your retirement? What plans are you most excited for?
I am most excited to embrace a new pace of life...slower, more intentional. I will be taking a year to develop as a crafter and artist - to see if I can make a living doing the things that bring me the most joy. I am excited to use my energy to learn more about foraging and herbalism. I have recently begun volunteering at hospice and find my time with patients and families to be meaningful and fulfilling. I am most excited to just try a lot of new things and see what resonates and what does not!