PIU Financial Aid Meeting

My first PIU event, after arriving from the Mainland on Thursday night, was the annual PIU Finance Chapel on Friday morning. This is the assembly where we explain to the students school costs and financial aid opportunities for the 2013-14 school year. My job was to explain the philosophy behind how we set these costs. Basically, we recognize that most of our students cannot remotely afford Christian higher education. I asked the students to work with us to keep PIU costs affordable. We decided to not raise tuition at all for the coming school year, and to do only minimal increases in fees, because we did not want to increase the gap between the Pell Grants and the steadily decreasing grants from the FSM government, and the students’ school costs. Many of our students cannot afford the current out-of pocket costs. In return we asked the students to diligently apply for outside funded grants and scholarships and to increase student on-campus work commitments. In return I committed to continue working hard to find donors for student scholarships, volunteers (a large chunk of our income budget is provided by “in-kind” missionary workers and volunteers) and other ways to mitigate student costs. My goal, as always, is to not ever have to turn away a qualified student because of finances. If you would like to help fund PIU students you can get more info and donate here.

Rob Watt, Student Life Director, explained the PIU We-Work program to the students. Students can receive up to $750 per semester for up to 100 hours of work at PIU or in community programs supported by PIU. This helps the school by reducing the need to hire outside workers and helps the student by providing them with practical work experience that they can list on their resumes. Nino Pate, seated, discussed the financial aid opportunities available to the students and provided them with several scenarios of how they could make their education affordable. Celia Atoigue (center), our operations manager, went over school costs and payment plans with the students. Samantha Owen (right) discussed the “President’s Grant.” This is our “final, fail-safe” grant that I can assign to a student who has worked hard, has been diligent to apply for scholarships and is a good student to cover the financial gap that is left after all other school and family resources are exhausted. Right now, it is an unfunded grant (I am working on changing that) but we as a school are also committed to trusting God to meet our needs. PIU does not participate in student loan programs.