Matt & Dani

It’s been quite a while since I’ve been able to travel for my job due to our department’s budget constraints. I would typically travel down to Encino at least once a quarter to work out of the main office for a few days, but that hasn’t happened in a while. So when my boss asked me if I wanted to attend a conference in San Antonio I jumped at the opportunity! The conference is for Financial Aid Administrators (mostly those folks who work at colleges and universities in the aid office) but we like to attend to get early information on any new Federal requirements. For those of you who have no idea what I do for a living, I work as a software analyst for PeopleSoft/Oracle. If you are attending a higher education institution, there’s a good possibility that your school runs on PeopleSoft for their student records, financial aid, bursar’s office, etc… My job is to help keep the PeopleSoft system up-to-date. So when the Feds make a change to the law, we have to react and update the software to support the new requirements. Anyway, this year’s conference was in San Antonio and went from Sunday-Wednesday. It was my first time attending this particular conference and there turned out to be a lot of good sessions!! Many of the presentations were given by people who work in the Department of Education in the areas that we all know so well; FAFSA, Pell, Perkins, Loans, etc… Around the conference schedule I tried to get out and see a bit of the city since I’d never been there before. My hotel was only 2 blocks from the Alamo and was situated directly next to the famous Riverwalk. Of course I took my camera to try and get as many shots as possible but the temperature outside was impossibly HOT!! Everyday was ~103 degrees with high humidity!! Yuck… I only lasted about 2 hours on any 1 outing before the heat was just too much for me. One morning I tried to outsmart the heat by visiting the Alamo at 5am but I lost that battle… although I got a couple good pictures when no one else was around. I’m sure San Antonio is a great place to visit in the Fall months but I’d never go back in the Summer. Next year’s conference is going to be in Denver, hopefully I’ll be able to attend. -M