Scholarship Specialist

The Scholarship Specialist plays a critical role in ensuring smooth and efficient scholarship administration. This position is responsible for processing a designated portion of a diverse scholarship portfolio, including academic awards for resident and non-resident students (first-year, transfer, and international), leadership, service, and diversity scholarships, donor-designated awards (including graduate fellowships), and external scholarships. The Specialist ensures adherence to established criteria and scholarship committee award recommendations.

Beyond processing, the Specialist may serve as the primary campus contact for a specific scholarship program, such as the Susan T. Buffett Scholarship or the Nebraska First Responder Recruitment and Retention Act tuition waiver.

In this role, they would provide expert support and act as a resource for other scholarship contacts. The Specialist's responsibilities also encompass handling mail and intake for external scholarship checks, data entry of scholarship information into the student information system, scholarship check deposit reconciliation, document imaging, verification of enrollment requests, and sending scholarship-related correspondence.

The Specialist functions as a valuable resource for scholarship services, serving as the frontline point of contact for internal inquiries from one-stop staff, scholarship donors, school counselors, and university staff. This includes providing support to customer service staff with scholarship-related inquiries and assisting scholarship program coordinators, students, families, university colleagues, and donors with their questions. They may also participate in occasional scholarship outreach activities.

The Specialist may also be involved in assisting the team with processing grants and student loans and collaborates with the team to ensure coverage of all scholarship processing duties. Daily on-site presence is required due to mail and check processing responsibilities.

The Scholarship Specialist is a multifaceted and integral member of the scholarship administration team. They ensure efficient and accurate scholarship processing while consistently providing exceptional service to a wide range of stakeholders. This position requires a Bachelor's degree and 1 year of experience processing financial transactions, preferably in a scholarship, financial aid, or related office setting.

This position also requires the ability to communicate effectively and build and maintain positive working relationships within and outside of reporting lines. Preferred experiences includes Oracle/PeopleSoft.

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln seeks to attract and retain a high performing and diverse workforce in which employees' differences are respected and valued to better meet the varying needs of the diverse populations we serve. The university fosters a diverse and inclusive work environment that promotes collaboration so that all individuals are able to participate and contribute to their full potential.

As an EO/AA employer, the University of Nebraska considers qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, ethnicity, national origin, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, disability, age, genetic information, veteran status, marital status, and/or political affiliation. See https://www.unl.edu/equity/notice-nondiscrimination.