Financial Aid Processing Specialist

St. Mary's University•San Antonio, TX

5d•Onsite

About The Position

The Financial Aid Processing Specialist is responsible for financial aid processing, awarding, certifying, and reconciling federal and private loans and applying awards to student accounts. The position organizes documents, verifies files, and will serve as a Veteran Certifying Official (VCO) for the University.

Requirements

High School Diploma/GED required
2 years of financial aid, loan processing, accounting, customer service or similar work experience
Must clear and maintain a favorable background investigation and clearance
Must have valid driver's license, motor vehicle liability insurance and personal injury insurance; or have a self-reliant source of transportation to conduct business on a daily basis
Must be able to work extended hours or weekends during peak times and for special programs, projects, or events.
Must have the ability to demonstrate basic skills in MS Office or 365 (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Teams).
Must be able to work extended hours and weekends when deemed necessary
Must have a high attention to detail and be able to organize workflow, coordinate activities, balance simultaneous projects without loss of efficiency in a multi-tasked environment, and manage multiple priorities to meet deadlines.
Must have excellent verbal and written communication skills; strong public relations and customer service skills with an ability to implement diplomacy and discretion at all times; ability to work effectively with communities across the university.
Ability to comply with all federal, state and private regulations in awarding and processing of student loans including understanding borrower-based year and scheduled academic year loan processing.
Demonstrated ability to work collaboratively as a team player in a fast-paced, environment to efficiently and effectively solve problems, and initiate and implement projects

Nice To Haves

Associate's Degree preferred in accounting, business or related business field (an equivalent combination of relevant education and professional experience demonstrating the required knowledge, skill, and abilities to perform the functions of the position proficiently may be considered)
Experience with Ellucian Banner, Argos software, or similar preferred
Uses various software applications, such as spreadsheets, virtual platforms (Zoom, Teams) and financial systems (Banner or similar program) to assemble, manipulate and/or format data and/or reports, a plus.
Bilingual Preferred (English/Spanish with the ability to understand and to make one's self understood to Spanish speaking individuals)

Responsibilities

Process loans, including data entry and export, monitoring credit decisions, and sending communications to parents/students (Federal Direct, Subsidized, Unsubsidized, ElmOne, Bar Study, Parent PLUS, Graduate PLUS)
Processes change requests for student awards; assists with posting awards; sends daily tracking letters and notice of award changes to students
Supports internal departments, and external organizations, answers questions, inquiries, or requests; report requests; follows up with students to obtain missing documentation
Reviews disbursement notifications and ensure that loan changes are accurately communicated to students.
Generates quality assurance testing/reports on processes, systems, financial aid files, etc., compares data for accuracy, makes corrections, and reviews documentation for accuracy and completeness
Maintains 100% verification file review compliance and ensures compliance with laws and regulation regarding federal, state regulations and school policies and procedures
Reviews and processes student verification documentation in system (Banner), audits against Federal Processing System (FPS), assists with review of the Pell and Direct Loan report reconciliation
Processes Veterans Affairs (VA) educational benefits and student registration forms according to the Veterans Administration Certifying Official Handbook
Submits required reports to the VA and ensures Veteran's benefit records are compliant
Creates, maintains, and verifies payments for student sponsorship billing for Post 9/11 GI Bill
Collaborates with the Military and Veteran's Affairs Coordinator and issues College Financing Plan to students using VA benefits
Works jointly with technical leadership to perform weekly data review, identifies discrepancies or over-awards, clears ISIR flags, direct loan rejects, suspends, duplicate records, award revisions, rejected disbursements, and identifies actions to resolve
Reviews and processes student refunds and dependent tuition benefit forms
Performs other duties as assigned