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CARSON

Carson and her staff also coordi nate and make sure all the aid lim its and regulations are met, both EC limits and outside rules, from the NJCAA, MACCC, and federal and state departments. They must keep up with constant changes coming from those same organizations which vary from small changes year to year to major overhauls at times. Carson has seen many leader ship changes at the college having worked for five different college presidents and multiple immediate supervisors. She said they all had a significant impact on her life. Perhaps the biggest change for Carson during her time at East Cen tral was when she lost her beloved Tom after a battle with esophageal cancer. She was his wife, friend, and nurse during those tough times, but continued to take care of her

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After the building was completed, another assistant was hired to han dle the scholarships and outside aid. We were able to spread the du ties out which was especially good as student enrollment, financial aid programs and responsibilities continued to increase.” Carson has seen much change over 41 years which have included more regulations, more technology, and the addition of various types of financial aid, on the federal, state and institutional levels. “We only had one program in the state when I began which was SSIG (later called LEAP). In 1995, the state programs of MTAG and MESG were added. One of the more re cent state aid programs is the HELP

The Brenda Gail Carson Conference Room was unveiled recently in the Smith Student Union during a retirement reception for the longtime Director of Financial Aid.

students’ needs as well. She recalled during his illness when Tom was talking about retirement, he said “People will forget about you or not know you, after you’ve been doing something for so long and the college has been an important part of you.’ I told him, ‘Some one else will come in and do the job, but your legacy is not to come later, but it is what you did in your time at the college and in what you did for your students.’” She added that she wanted to look at her retirement in the same way that she had stated to Tom. After losing Tom, Carson said she felt she still had a pur pose here. “I enjoyed the people I worked with and I enjoyed helping the students. For me, it has also been an opportunity to serve, and I felt I could still do that job well.” As she thinks about her own pending retirement, Carson said, “I still love what I do with helping students obtain finan cial aid to pay for some or all of their costs of education. It’s important to be able to decipher and understand rules and regulations. I’ve spent years keeping up with those rules and regulations in order to effectively administer the financial aid programs and to maintain the integrity of the institution. “I have said that you either like financial aid work or you don’t. I’ve enjoyed the work. I have been fortunate not to have had too much turnover in the office. We’ve all enjoyed working together and helping students. I just felt like this was the right time for me to retire. While financial aid work is never done, I completed some things that I wanted to finish. It was an honor to establish the first financial aid office at EC and grow it into the office that it is today. ” “I wish the best for the College now and in the years to come. I feel certain that the College will continue to focus on excellence, the students, and the ‘EC family’ atmosphere. EC is a special place!” In 2016 Carson received the Jack Woodward Award of Excellence by the Mississippi Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators and has earned 14 professional creden tials with the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. In 2002, she was named Xi Chapter Woman of Distinction by Delta Kappa Gamma Society International, which is made up of key women educators from various school settings.

program, which is a significant program for students who meet curriculum and income requirements. It targets those that have a greater need, is a larger amount of money, and we are fortunate to have many students that have qualified for that program.” Initially, scholarships offered by East Central included academic (ACT), Valedictorian or Salutatorian, athletic, band, and cheerleader. When Dr. Eddie Smith took over the President’s office in 1985, the college began to look at scholarship offerings and made several changes and additions over the next few years. In the early 1990s, some of the scholarships that had been added included art, piano and vocal music major, choir, small vocal ensemble, vocational-technical (now called career-tech nical). It was also during this time that the EC Foundation began to grow providing scholarships for EC students from private groups, businesses or individuals. Other scholarship changes have been made during the administration of the other presidents in the years that have followed. Selection of aid recipients and the way funds are dis bursed has changed throughout the years, along with the way records are kept. Much of the process has gone from paper applications to electronic applications and records. Programs have expanded in the last two or three decades and more students are receiving aid than ever before. “There were big federal changes with Pell Grant and some expansion there around 1985. There have been more and more regulations each year. Congress is supposed to reautho rize Title IV (federal) aid every five years; however, that has not happened for a while. Currently various bills have been passed covering sections of regulations to make changes but not a full reauthorization. This means that we get changes along the way that we have to be mindful of each year. The Department of Education provides electronic announcements and handbooks that we use to review the rules and require ments. Another big change is coming in 2024-25 –one of the most significant changes I’ve seen in a while. It will change the way we do a lot of things. There will need to be more training and staffing to keep up. It’s called “Simplification” and is meant to make the application and aid eligibility deter mination process easier; however, at this point some of the processes seem to be very complicated.”

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