Financial Services Assistant Director Settles In

Two practical concerns face most graduate students: how to pay for tuition and then how to manage the ensuing debt. To address those issues, HSPH students can visit the new Assistant Director of Student Financial Services Ken Ferreira.

Ferreira will run the day-to-day functions of the Office of Student Financial Services, working with Director Kathryn Austin. He will counsel students on both federal financial aid programs, such as work-study programs, as well as alternative ways to underwrite their education. He will also advise them on managing their educational debts, preventing loan defaults, receiving stipends, and dealing with billing issues. He added that he would like to make entrance and exit counseling available online.

It may sound a bit dry, but it’s never boring, said Ferreira. He must apprise himself of frequent changes to the labyrinthine federal financial aid regulations.

Before coming to HSPH, Ferreira was the associate director of financial aid at Rivier College in Nashua, New Hampshire, where he continues to pursue his MBA. The HSPH job attracted him, he said, because he wanted to work in a university setting.

"Where is there a better place to learn the functions of a financial aid office within a university than Harvard?" he asked.

He also liked the idea of returning to Massachusetts, where he formerly worked as assistant director of financial assistance at Newbury College in Brookline.

Massachusetts also has a much larger Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators than New Hampshire, he said, and he would like to run for an elected office within the association.

Ferreira graduated with a degree in English from Notre Dame College in New Hampshire in 1998. It was there, as a work-study student in the financial aid office, that he first realized he would like to become a financial aid professional.

"I said to the director, ‘You know, I might be able to do this for a living,’ and she looked at me like I had a second head and said, ‘Really?’" laughed Ferreira.

Really.

"Take Our Daughters to Work" Day

Nearly 30 girls participated in "Take Our Daughters to Work Day" on April 26. Young girls learned first-hand about possible future careers during the event, sponsored by the Office of Human Resources.