Gateway Community College is a two-year institution serving 8,000 students in Phoenix's inner city. Part of the Maricopa Community Colleges system, the school enrolls many first-generation college students, minorities, single parents and returning adults who need financial assistance to receive postsecondary education. An increase in enrollment and education-loan volume prompted Bradley Honious, director of student financial assistance, to implement a spectrum of debt-management services to encourage financial literacy and student retention.

Programs
From financial-literacy courses to a wide range of online services, the Gateway Community College Office of Student Financial Assistance provides a variety of innovative programs and services that reach students from high school to college graduation and beyond.

To promote financial literacy, Gateway Community College offers the USA Funds^® Life Skills^® program through the school's freshman-success class. About 250 students each semester complete the USA Funds Life Skills training, presented in a computer lab to allow for interactivity. Through special programs targeting at-risk youth, 500 high-school students over a two-year period also have completed the financial-literacy-program modules that focus on smart spending and timely completion of degree work.

New "Pre-Graduation Interactive Workshops" provide students nearing completion of their education at Gateway Community College with a hands-on look at a variety of Web sites available to guide graduates through repayment of their education loans. USA Funds Life Skills modules that cover completing school and repaying loans and other post-graduation life skills are a part of the sessions, which seek to emphasize the point that the financial-aid office is available to help students even after they leave school. Over three semesters, these workshops have reached 150 students.

An award-winning online service, "Electronic Processes — Providing 24/7 Access," offers Gateway Community College students Web access to a myriad of financial-aid and debt-management documents and programs, including aid-award letters, education-loan promissory notes, entrance and exit loan counseling and a bookstore-voucher program. A "Managing Your Loan" Web site, "Calculator Web Page" and "Career and Alumni Page" provide services that focus on money and loan management and searching for jobs. More than 2,000 students access the financial-aid office's Web site each week.

Rounding out its array of services to students and alumni is what Gateway Community College calls "the centerpiece to our default-prevention plan." Using Default Management System™ (DMS) software, the school sends letters and e-mail messages to borrowers who are delinquent in repaying their education loans, offering assistance from the financial-aid office. This service has helped many former Gateway Community College students find solutions to their payment problems.

Results
Statistics and anecdotal evidence alike point to the success of Gateway Community College's debt-management efforts. The school's draft education-loan-default rate is 7.7 percent, down from 10 percent for the previous year. At the same time, students are taking advantage of financial aid at an increasing rate, with aid to students increasing by 87 percent since 2001-2002. Students, faculty, staff and administrators across campus and at other institutions are singing the praises of the financial-aid office’s work. The Office of Student Financial Assistance’s mission to create a culture of learning, accessibility, degree completion and happy, financially literate alumni is being accomplished.