USA Funds Web Site Helps Financial-Aid Administrator Connect With Half Sister

As she began a workday several months ago, Stacy Peña-Villalobos of Nova Southeastern University got a surprise. A half sister who Peña-Villalobos did not know existed had sent her an e-mail, with her half sister noting that she’d found Peña-Villalobos because of a reference on the USA Funds^® Web site.

The message was the start of e-mail and telephone conversations that led to the half sisters’ eventual meeting in Phoenix prior to Peña-Villalobos’ participation in the recent joint meeting of USA Funds’ state and national advisory councils.

Peña-Villalobos, director of loans, scholarships and debt management for the Fort Lauderdale, Fla., school, is a member of USA Funds’ Florida advisory council.

“If USA Funds did not have an online article with my name mentioned, I don’t know that she ever would have found me,” Peña-Villalobos says of her half sister’s search.

Peña-Villalobos’ half sister, Jennifer Conroy, had been looking for Peña-Villalobos since learning of her when Conroy was 15. Twenty years after her search began, Conroy found her half sister’s married name through a posting about Peña-Villalobos on a class-reunion Web site. Once Conroy had Peña-Villalobos’ married name, a Web search took her to a story that mentioned Peña-Villalobos on the USA Funds Web site.

It was through that story that Conroy learned that her half sister worked for Nova Southeastern University, where Conroy finally reached Peña-Villalobos.

Peña-Villalobos and Conroy, who lives in Kansas, spent two days together before the start of the USA Funds advisory councils’ meeting.

“Now we’ve made a commitment that we’ll get together at least once a year,” says Peña-Villalobos. “It’s a wonderful addition to my family.”

Peña-Villalobos has been on the USA Funds Florida advisory council since it first gathered in 2003. USA Funds established the council to ensure that USA Funds’ services meet the needs of postsecondary education in Florida. The group includes financial-aid administrators for Florida colleges and universities and representatives of lending institutions.

USA Funds convenes advisory councils in its designated states as well as California and Florida. USA Funds is the designated guarantor of federal education loans in Arizona, Hawaii, Indiana, Kansas, Maryland, Mississippi, Nevada and Wyoming.

A national advisory council of financial-aid professionals also provides guidance to USA Funds.

All USA Funds state and national advisory councils conducted their first joint meeting in October. Participants learned about and provided input regarding USA Funds products and services. They also brainstormed and discussed best practices regarding a variety of issues, including new federal grant programs and challenges facing their institutions.