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Student Financial Aid Research Network | Printer Friendly | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 24th Annual SFARN Conference The Governor Hotel, Portland, OR June 21-23, 2007 For the second year in a row, the SFARN Planning Committee ventured into new territory by bringing the 24th Annual conference to a new city, Portland, OR. And just as we found in our travels to Providence, RI for the 23rd conference, change is good! Over 110 researchers, analysts, and policy experts attended the two-and a half-day conference held at the lovely Governor Hotel. The city of Portland was wonderful—there was even plenty of sunshine and I think every one made it to Powell's Books at least once. I have been involved with this conference for 13 years, and the 24th annual conference program was clearly one of the strongest we have ever had. Both the presenters and the content of our panels worked very well together, making for some very rich presentations and discussions. As always, the mixture of old and new faces ensured that the conversations at this meeting were grounded in the history of student aid programs, but were pushed forward by new ideas and perspectives. Copies of most of the presentations can be found here, as well as biographies of our speakers. Once again during this year's conference, we had a fundraiser for the Jerry S. Davis Scholarship with the American Indian College Fund. We held a raffle at the conference to raise more funds for this scholarship, which helps needy American Indian students attend college. Congrats to our winners, especially Susan Choy and George Chin, who each won beautiful commemorative American Indian College Fund blankets. Overall, we raised over $1,000 from those who attended and even some folks who donated online. If you would like to contribute, go to the American Indian College Fund website. This link will bring you to the How to Contribute page: (http://www.collegefund.org/donate/howtodonate.html). Select the Tribute/Memorial Donations option - this will take you to a new page, asking for your information. Finally, plans for the 25th Annual Conference are underway. The Planning Committee welcomes any and all suggestions you may have for next year as we celebrate 25 years of this great conference. You can email me colleen.obrien AT pellinstitute.org. We hope to have details out to you early in the fall so you can mark your calendars well ahead of time. On behalf of the planning committee, I would like to thank all of the participants, especially our presenters. Thank you for your thoughtful presentations and willingness to engage the audience. One final word of gratitude to my colleagues on the conference planning committee and here at the Pell Institute—your efforts make this conference a reality. Hope we see you next year. Colleen T. O'Brien Director The Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education |
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