September 3, 2008

Who's Who at OGSLP?

Chris Grillo

Department: Early Assistance
Title: Data Analyst
Years with OGSLP: 5 years

How do your daily duties impact OGSLP's customers?
I supply monthly loan and disbursement information to several of our schools, lenders and servicers. I also designed the Default Prevention School Tool (DPST), a Microsoft Access database that helps schools work their delinquent student portfolio quickly and easily. I'm the primary contact for DPST demonstrations, installation schedules and troubleshooting.


What advice would you give to someone in our industry who's new to working with student loans?
Oklahoma's student loan industry is a very close-knit family where everybody knows everybody. By tapping into this community, you get to know colleagues with a wealth of knowledge and industry expertise, supportive friends who care and people dealing with similar professional experiences.


What do you find most challenging about working with student loans?
There’s a lot of information and data available pertaining to student loans.  Helping customers analyze and package data to meet their needs can be challenging, but it's an area I particularly enjoy.


What are some of the unique services that Early Assistance provides our customers?
As previously mentioned, Early Assistance is responsible for demonstrating and supporting the DPST, which allows schools to send batch letters to delinquent borrowers without retyping any of the borrowers’ information. Early Assistance specialists utilize three-way calling with borrowers, schools and servicers, because sometimes borrowers aren’t aware of their options or how to ask about them. Early Assistance offers schools an analysis of their cohort file to determine if there are any trends within the defaulting population, so the school’s offices and procedures can proactively address and reduce defaults.


What are your hobbies or interests?
My wife and I just had our second child, so that keeps us pretty busy these days!