Karla Weber Wandel (OSFA) and Greer Davis (OAR) Represent DEM at the RNL National Conference
In late July, Karla Weber Wandel (OSFA) and Greer Davis (OAR) traveled to Dallas, Texas to present at this year’s Ruffalo Noel Levitz (RNL)’s National Conference.
Karla and Greer co-presented “Let’s Get Together, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah – Why Don’t Admissions and Financial Aid Communications Combine.” The session, littered with Parent Trap references and trivia, details their collaborative partnership on 2024-25 FAFSA communications to incoming students, supporters, and counselor and advisors. The session also walked participants through how they can apply lessons learned to successfully and strategically get the right information to the right people – whether a communications specialist or a subject matter expert.
One session participant described the session in their survey as, “[The] most creative RNL presentation I’ve attended in 7 years. And, Yeah! Very informative!”
Karla also gave her presentation “Gimme Some Straight Talk; Accessible and Inclusive Financial Aid Communications” which invokes the words of Dolly Parton to hold the sugar, not talk in circles, avoid the mumbo-jumbo jive, stop the guessing games, translate our gibberish, and instead just spit it out real plain! Continued scrutiny on the transparency and clarity of financial aid impacts all of us, so the goal of her session was to help attendees consider how inclusive, accessible, plain, and trauma informed language and tools can support their own improvement efforts and encourage them to use more student-centric and jargon-free language when speaking to students, their families, and campus and community members about financial aid.
Karla and Greer co-presented “Let’s Get Together, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah – Why Don’t Admissions and Financial Aid Communications Combine.” The session, littered with Parent Trap references and trivia, details their collaborative partnership on 2024-25 FAFSA communications to incoming students, supporters, and counselor and advisors. The session also walked participants through how they can apply lessons learned to successfully and strategically get the right information to the right people – whether a communications specialist or a subject matter expert.
One session participant described the session in their survey as, “[The] most creative RNL presentation I’ve attended in 7 years. And, Yeah! Very informative!”
Karla also gave her presentation “Gimme Some Straight Talk; Accessible and Inclusive Financial Aid Communications” which invokes the words of Dolly Parton to hold the sugar, not talk in circles, avoid the mumbo-jumbo jive, stop the guessing games, translate our gibberish, and instead just spit it out real plain! Continued scrutiny on the transparency and clarity of financial aid impacts all of us, so the goal of her session was to help attendees consider how inclusive, accessible, plain, and trauma informed language and tools can support their own improvement efforts and encourage them to use more student-centric and jargon-free language when speaking to students, their families, and campus and community members about financial aid.