Purdue Profiles: Brandon Endsley

April 17, 2013  


Brandon Endsley

Brandon Endsley, financial aid counselor for the Division of Financial Aid. (Purdue University photo/ Allyson Corbat)
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Helping make a college education affordable for more families is one of the top reasons Brandon Endsley enjoys his work at Purdue.

Endsley’s current position at the University involves two roles: He serves as a financial aid counselor for the Division of Financial Aid, and he manages MyMoney (www.purdue.edu/mymoney), a financial literacy program he helped to create.

What are your main duties in your current role at Purdue?

As a financial aid counselor, I help students and parents better understand the financial aid process, understand their financial aid awards and help them attain the maximum amount of financial aid possible by explaining the different financing options available for students.

As a financial literacy administrator managing MyMoney, I update and maintain the home page and blog website, create and give presentations and maintain all of MyMoney’s social media outlets. The MyMoney website is a resource dedicated to Purdue students and it provides them with financial literacy material. MyMoney also provides financial literacy material for children, parents and teachers. MyMoney started as part of a nationwide effort to help everyone be more conscious about personal finance, and Purdue wanted to provide additional avenues to students to become financially fit.

What other outreach efforts are you involved in?

This year, I am co-chair of Money Smart Week for the Lafayette area. Money Smart Week, which runs from April 20 to 27 this year, is a public awareness campaign meant to help everyone better understand and manage their personal finances. Schools, financial institutions and other groups come together during this week to provide free educational seminars and activities.

I am helping to arrange several events for this year’s Money Smart Week here at Purdue and in the Lafayette area. This year, we are passing out candy bars with money management tips on them in the Purdue Memorial Union. I am also helping with events in the Lafayette community, including a financial literacy fair at Ivy Tech Community College.

One of our big events for this year’s Money Smart Week is a financial literacy outreach for local children called Pet Place. Pet Place helps kids learn financial skills by giving them an allowance to provide for their pets. They will budget their allowance for pet food, pet housing and pet toys. There will also be a “bank” at the event where the kids can create a checking account. You can find times and additional information from Money Smart Week’s online calendar at http://www.moneysmartweek.org/attend_an_event.

I believe Money Smart Week is important to Purdue and the community because there is a need for financial literacy and there are not many efforts out there offering free financial advice.

What are some of the most common questions you receive?

On the financial aid side, many of the common questions focus on loans, scholarships and other avenues to obtain financial assistance to help pay for school. Some common questions I receive about financial literacy deal with credit cards, credit scores and budgeting.

How do you feel you are making a difference?

I know I am making a difference through my work because there is not a year that goes by that I don’t see at least one student, who initially believes college is not for them because of the lack of finances, but they leave my office knowing college is a possibility because of financial aid programs available to them.

What are some of your future professional goals?

I am always looking to provide additional outreach to Purdue students. At some point in the future, I would like to have a constant outreach schedule available to students so they could receive information or get help on a weekly or monthly basis. One project I am working on is creating several different personal finance presentations and working with organizations on campus to provide more outreach to students.

I am also working on my Accredited Financial Counselor certificate. The certificate provides an in-depth knowledge of personal finance and counseling, and while studying for the certificate I have found areas of financial literacy that MyMoney can improve upon. Over all, the certificate will allow me to prove professional financial literacy information to Purdue students.

Writer: Chris Adam, cadam@purdue.edu, 49-42082

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