Enter the Financial Aid Office near the main quad patio, turn left and sitting there you will find Nina Van. A member of the De Anza College Staff since 2004, Van says she “wears many hats” as the financial aid outreach coordinator.
In the outreach portion of her job, Van travels off campus to local high schools, giving presentations about financial aid or running information booths. When on campus, as a member of the financial aid department, Van helps students fill out applications. She likes the combination of “being in and going out.”
A transfer student herself, Van began her college career at Mission College where she received an associate’s degree before transferring to San Jose State University. At San Jose State, Van earned a bachelor’s degree in business and a master’s in education and counseling.
Prior to coming to De Anza, she worked at Abraham Lincoln High School in San Jose. If she weren’t at De Anza, she says, she would choose to work at another school, as she’s always wanted to work within the academic community.
Rules regulating financial aid can be a downside to her job. She needs to follow the regulations, which occasionally means saying no to students. Sometimes, she says, “I can’t help them because of those rules.”
Van spends her spare time with her two daughters and enjoys listening to music. “I like love songs,” Van says, as well as country and Vietnamese music.