Paul Doane receives Lifetime Achievement Award

Paul Doane, Associate Director of Financial Aid Compliance, was honored by the Michigan Student Financial Aid Association (MSFAA) at its 50^th Anniversary Celebration on January 29, 2018, in Dearborn, with a Lifetime Achievement Award. This award was given in recognition of his distinguished service to MSFAA and the financial aid profession during his 35-year career in higher education.

In accepting the award, Paul gave God the glory for his success. Paul shared the following with a group of 200 financial aid professions gathered for the event:

“As most of you know, my Christian faith has always been important to me.  Throughout my life I have attempted to align my decisions with God’s purposes and mission for me. To be chosen to receive this award near the end of my professional career is an additional confirmation that the path I pursued through my work in student financial aid was the one God had chosen for me all along.”

He also thanked his financial aid colleagues and mentors who “who have chiseled away at my glaring flaws and have sanded smooth many of my rough edges.”

As president of the Michigan Student Financial Association in 1999-2000, Paul introduced an Interdenominational Prayer Breakfast at MSFAA conferences which have become a part of each conference since then.  A Silent Auction fundraiser at the MSFAA Winter Conference in 2000 began after Paul attended a similar event at a national conference and convinced his financial aid colleagues in Michigan to try one here.  Proceeds of over $63,000 from MSFAA Silent Auctions held during the last 18 years have been distributed to over 15 community organizations throughout the state of Michigan.

Paul began his financial aid career at Cornerstone University (his alma mater), serving as Director of Financial Aid and then Director of Enrollment Management from 1982-1992.  He also spent 10 years as a Financial Aid Counselor and Assistant Director of Financial Aid at Grand Valley State University.

Paul Doane with his wife and his son Pete.

Website to migrate to Drupal 8

On Sunday, Feb. 4, the website development team will migrate to Drupal 8. While this technical upgrade is taking place, web editor access will be temporarily restricted on Feb. 3 and 4.

This upgrade is intended to offer more tools to web editors and provide more possibilities in upcoming website redesign efforts.

In addition to the new tools provided for web editors, all users will see a slight tweak in the font and appearance of our left-hand sidebar navigation menus. This change is intended to give users a clean presentation that is easy to navigate.

There will be two Drupal training opportunities offered this month through Staff Development.

 

Please contact webteam@grcc.edu if you have any questions.