NT4CM – I know what you’re thinking – Not another acronym! But this acronym can make your life easier – really it can!

NT4CM stands for National Training for Counselors and Mentors. It is a program developed by Federal Student Aid, NASFAA, and the National Council of Higher Education Loan Program (NCHELP). The program has been expanded to partner with the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) and the American School Counselor Association (ASCA), and will soon include the Council for Opportunities in Education (COE) and the National College Access Network (NCAN). The training is free and is designed to provide counselors and mentors with information and materials that will help them be more effective when advising students and their families about how to pay for college.

Providing accurate financial aid information and training to counselors and mentors helps increase college access and can reduce work for financial aid offices by ensuring that the right information gets to students and parents. As I’m sure you are aware, students and parents have many misconceptions about college financial aid. Sometimes these misconceptions keep students from setting and pursuing higher education goals. In addition, financial aid offices across the country spend countless hours correcting these misconceptions. NT4CM works to eliminate these misconceptions by ensuring that counselors and mentors pass on the most up-to-date and accurate financial aid information to students and families.

The program is intended to supplement current high school counselor financial aid training that states provide. It is not meant to replace current training and NT4CM programs can be tailored to the training needs of your state. Since the NT4CM training is customizable, states can choose from a number of participating levels that range from implementing the entire program or incorporating only parts of the training into existing training programs.

In Utah, the training is coordinated through the guaranty agency. The guaranty agency works with the school districts in the state to determine training locations and dates and works with higher education institutions to arrange trainers and volunteers.

I have had the opportunity to work with the Utah Higher Education Assistance Authority to help conduct several NT4CM workshops. This year, our state association was asked to provide a financial aid administrator to co-present with one of the staff at UHEAA who conducts outreach efforts. Together, we presented eight workshops throughout the state.

This first one I conducted this year was held at my institution. This made it very convenient for me to present without leaving my campus for an extended period of time. High school counselors, along with members of the Academic Advising staff at my college, attended. I was able to talk to them about the changes in independent status for Pell grant applicants, ACG and also introduced them to the college.gov website.

The second session was at another of my campuses, but for a much larger group. I co-presented with one of our four-year institution financial aid administrators. This allowed us to answer questions about two year programs and the four year programs. The high school counselors had many questions about financial aid and we were able to answer all of them and give them additional information that will help them counsel students in the future. In addition, our state now has a State Scholars program that will give additional students eligibility for the ACG. Having a member of our agency that coordinates this program allowed more in-depth answers that we would have been able to give.

We received great feedback from the counselors who attended throughout our state. Next year, we hope to continue the partnership between our state association and our state guarantee agency. We will also be trying to coordinate the NT4CM training with the yearly counseling conference which may allow us to reach more counselors.

After two years, there were 22 states participating in NT4CM at various levels and the program continues to expand. The workshops have elicited many positive reviews and a majority of the participants have been very pleased with the training that was received. As NT4CM expands, more high school counselors and mentors learn and understand the financial aid process and are better able to provide accurate information to students and their families. This helps ensure that students and parents have the information necessary to overcome the financial barriers to higher education, which will increase college access and reduce work burdens for financial aid offices.

Utah has been conducting this training for several years, just like many of your states. Utilizing the NT4CM materials gives us additional information that can be shared with these valuable colleagues and gives financial aid administrators an opportunity to increase college access. I encourage you to get involved with the NT4CM program in your state, or encourage your state to get involved with NT4CM – if your state is not currently participating. NT4CM offers many ways to participate. You can contact the guaranty agency in your area to see if your state is participating. Or for more information, go to www.fsa4counselors.ed.gov.

NT4CM is a great program that will enhance the Financial Aid Office’s ability to reach as many students as possible. Any time we can get the word out to students while they are still in high school, the more likely those students will attend college and maximize their potential.

The National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA) is a nonprofit membership organization that represents more than 20,000 financial aid professionals at nearly 3,000 colleges, universities, and career schools across the country. Each year, financial aid professionals help more than 16 million students receive funding for postsecondary education. Based in Washington, D.C., NASFAA is the only national association with a primary focus on student aid legislation, regulatory analysis, and training for financial aid administrators. In addition to its member Web site at www.NASFAA.org, the Association offers a Web site with financial aid information for parents and students at www.StudentAid.org.