{"id":5159,"date":"2018-03-09T09:50:17","date_gmt":"2018-03-09T14:50:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/?p=5159"},"modified":"2025-08-16T17:58:23","modified_gmt":"2025-08-16T21:58:23","slug":"a-financial-opportunity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/2018\/03\/09\/a-financial-opportunity\/","title":{"rendered":"A Financial Opportunity"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Paul Kaplan and Ray Rice celebrate UMPI’s 100th returned refund check<\/p><\/div>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Student loan debt is a very real part of life for many college students. And while being able to take out loans to help pay for school is important, students sometimes take more than they actually need and end up having to pay large amounts back after their college years are over. But UMPI is working on a plan to change that.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Laurie Boucher, a staff associate with Student Financial Services, said that UMPI is encouraging students to return their refund checks to reduce their student loan debt. Students can take out whatever money they need, and if they find that they don\u2019t need as much as they originally thought, they can return that money. \u201cTake any of that remaining amount and bring that back to us,\u201d Boucher said. She went on to say that this helps students on the long run because they are reducing their debt in the future, no matter how small the amount of the reduction.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0This year, UMPI got the chance to celebrate its 100<\/span>th<\/span> returned refund check for the academic year. \u201cWe\u2019ve never had over 100,\u201d Boucher said. So, Student Financial Services decided to make it a celebration. Paul Kaplan was the student to return the 100<\/span>th<\/span> refund check, and Boucher said they had a little celebration for it, and even surprised President Ray Rice with the news. Rice and Kaplan took a picture together and Boucher said, \u201cWe had confetti, bells and whistles.\u201d The numbers of returned refund checks has actually risen since this event. \u201cRight now we\u2019re over 100,\u201d Boucher said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Tiffany Smith, a sophomore at UMPI, expressed her appreciation for what the campus is trying to do. \u201cAs we go to college, we\u2019re working our way through,\u201d she said. \u201cI think it\u2019s important that Student Support Services gives us this opportunity to be able to pay off our debt while we\u2019re still in school.\u201d She also mentioned that this is a great way for students who don\u2019t have paying jobs while they go to school to reduce their debts.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Boucher and the staff from Student Financial Services are encouraging students to stop by the office to learn more about reducing their student loan debt. \u201cTell them to come and see us anytime,\u201d Boucher said. \u201cWe have an open-door policy.\u201d Students can also contact Boucher at <\/span>laurie.boucher@maine.edu<\/span><\/a> to learn more. It\u2019s a great opportunity for students to take a step in making their life after college as debt-free as possible.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Student loan debt is a very real part of life for many college students. And while being able to take out loans to help pay for school is important, students sometimes take more than they actually need and end up having to pay large amounts back after their college years are over. But UMPI is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":205,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7381],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archives","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/205"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5159"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5159\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8723,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5159\/revisions\/8723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}