A Team Effort: Student Financial Services supports UVA's student-athletes

797 student-athletes,

70 student scouts and managers,

23 sports,

566 contacts in 2016,

629 contacts to date this year . . . 

. . . and 3 very flexible Athletic Financial Aid professionals in Student Financial Services.

Valerie Clem, Almanita Graves, and Sharlene Sajonas work in Student Financial Aid, focusing on Athletic Aid, and they love what they do. Balancing two office locations, two teams of colleagues, and understanding the ins and outs of 23 different sports, working nights, weekends, and odd hours, the three agree that all of the craziness is worth it when they see a student-athlete they’ve worked with excel at their sport or in the classroom.

Just as student-athletes must work hard to strike a balance between their studies and the sport they play, Clem, Graves, and Sajonas have to exert a lot of effort to make sure those students have what they need to be successful at UVA . . . and they have to do it quickly, and sometimes at a moment’s notice.

Almanita Graves and Valerie Clem of Student Financial 
Services work with student-athlete Juwan Moye.

“There is a huge compliance piece and sometimes incredible urgency when you need to certify a student-athlete's eligibility to compete” Sajonas comments. She says with all student-athletes have to worry about: academic and athletic demands, and sometimes personal situations, financial aid shouldn’t be in the forefront.

To make the financial aid process less worrisome to students, Sajonas, Clem, and Graves split their time between the Student Financial Aid offices in Carruthers Hall and the Athletics Compliance offices in McCue Hall.

The team’s presence in McCue mean that student-athletes don’t have to come to Carruthers to do paperwork and get their questions answered, and it also allows the team to work closely with coaches, grad assistant coaches, and colleagues in the athletics department (especially, says Sajonas, Eric Baumgartner and Rob Slavis in Athletics Compliance).

Clem says that no matter where she is for the day, she keeps a copy of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) manual on her desk for reference at all times.

“You have to explain all the NCAA bylaws on financial aid to student-athletes, and financial aid is such a weird language in itself,” she says.

Whether it’s financial aid or outside scholarships, everything must meet NCAA guidelines.

“It’s a constant challenge because you have to combine federal regulations, institutional policies, and the NCAA/ACC bylaws,” says Sajonas.


And when those complex requirements are blended with the time crunch that comes with being student-athletes, the team often finds itself quite literally running from point A to point B.

“Student-athletes have all the same anxieties as other students, but they also have intense time demands placed on them,” says Graves, who recalls catching up with one student-athlete near the Barracks’s Road Shopping Center.

“It was the only time he could meet me to get a signature,” she says.

“I started out walking from Carruthers, and he started heading my way from McCue, and we met in the middle. They have very little ‘free time’, so we make an effort to be flexible and work with them. This ensures we are able to assist them with what they need.”

Once upon a time, Sajonas was the lone Athletic Aid team member. Two years ago, Graves was hired, and Clem came on board in April 2017.

All three agree: the job can be stressful and tiring, but they really love what they do.

That enthusiasm is not lost on the coaches at UVA.

“It’s not just me and my assistant coaches who put in the work,” says Steve Garland, Head Wrestling Coach.

“Financial aid helps us turn over every stone in hopes we can find every last cent for these families. It is a total team effort.”

When coaches call, says Sajonas, the Athletic Aid team is at the ready, as their needs are nearly always time-sensitive.

“You never quite know when you’ll be asked to meet with a recruit or their parents,” she explains. “The coaches call and say, ‘hey, we have some recruits coming in tomorrow, and they have questions. I’ve met many recruits and their parents Saturday mornings last fall, and it’s really gratifying to see most of them here today.”

Although Clem, Graves and Sajonas work with all 23 sports at UVA, they don’t specialize. It’s important that every team member be able to handle every part of the job for every sport. Although different sports have different equivalencies for NCAA (full scholarships, partial scholarships, or no scholarships), Clem, Graves, and Sajonas are prepared to handle all of the details, as well as questions from coaches, students, and parents.

“We have to know about various graduate and undergraduate financial aid and what’s countable and what’s not countable aid against the individual and team limits,” says Sajonas.

“We’re always learning, too – but always, our aim is to get the financial piece cleared up so the students can focus on academics and competing. They shouldn’t have to worry about how they’re going to pay their bill,” says Clem.