Episode 119: The Healing Continues with David Carnevale & Brian Kirst

Coffee & Change

In 2020 over 18 million students applied to go to college. And 17.7 million of those students applied for financial aid. Applying for financial aid can be a daunting and emotional process for students and families. In my research for this episode, I learned that in 2020 the number of submitted applications of the FAFSA, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, fell by 50,000 applicants. Guiding students and families along that journey is a global community of Financial Aid Directors and Counselors who are committed to simplifying the complexities and easing the pathway to graduation for the next generation. This episode is dedicated to these unsung heroes, these keepers of all those forms and even some of the memories. Those makers of dreams. With their focus ever on the next generation pursuing higher education and newfound purpose, their work is seldom heralded. And while the statistics and metrics are all too easily cited, we rarely hear of the stories behind the numbers. Nor do we get to meet the people whose lives have been changed forever by the work of a Financial Aid counselor, like David Carnevale. In this episode I bring two of those stories to light. Told nearly 20 years later, this story of change is a reunion between a young student and the counselor who helped him find his path to independence and eventually graduation. Thank you to David and Brian for joining the podcast and trusting this platform to echo their stories while championing the next generation of changemakers.