A recent program produced by Maryland Public Television about college affordability featured UMBC student Liz Winters ’13, psychology, and current master’s student in industrial and organizational psychology. The program “Ways to Pay for College” guided viewers through the many options of funding higher education. Several financial experts and student success stories were featured during the program which aired November 21 and 23 on Maryland Public Television.
https://youtu.be/Zsn23C-n6Us
Liz Winters (story begins at 33:50 in the video above) described her path in finding ways to finance her education at UMBC. After she served in the military for 12 years, she returned to school and needed to explore options to cover her costs for tuition, living expenses, and daycare for her children. She used the Post-9/11 GI Bill but still needed to fund her remaining expenses.
“One of the strategies I had in funding my way through college was to talk to people,” Winters shared. “I didn’t know how to navigate this on my own, so I started networking on campus. I started finding my places on campus that I felt comfortable with and started asking the staff and the faculty that were sitting in those areas to really help me find my way through college and develop my career path.”
As a student, Winters worked closely with the Women’s Center and developed a close relationship with Jess Myers, director of the Women’s Center, who worked with Liz to find the Charlotte W. Newcombe Scholarship. The scholarship is for women over 25-years-old who are returning to school to obtain an undergraduate degree.
“Liz has never been afraid to ask for help,” explained Myers in the segment. “I think so often non-traditional students will be afraid to make waves, but instead Liz really asked for help. She sought out the Women’s Center…piecing it together, I was able to realize that a scholarship that we provide would be a really good fit for her and her family.”
“I was really excited to know that his scholarship was actually perfect for me,” said Winters. “I could use it for daycare for my children, I could use it for gas money, for all the extra little things that go along with funding your education. For me, finding scholarships that addressed what I needed…the more I looked, the more I realized that this scholarship was looking to fill those gaps that I needed to be filled.”
For more about the “Ways to Pay for College” program, visit the Maryland Public Television website.
Image: UMBC campus. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.Â
Tags: CAHSS, cfr, Psychology, WomensCenter
