An Associate’s Experience with JIFFI’s Loan #10
By Samantha DiMaggio ’17
On call during my Tuesday office hour shift last week, I spent the time working through some accounting problems in an effort to prepare for my upcoming exam. My computer, logged into the Google Voice account that the staff uses in order to take calls, sat idle as I listened to the nothing sound that came through my headphones. At around 7:00 pm, I heard the faint sound of a ringing phone, and quickly realized that a call was coming through. Enthusiastically, I answered my first call, and spoke with the client for about half an hour. We worked on scheduling a time to meet, and the next day, a meeting was set in stone for Peter, Aidan, and I to meet the client in our downtown office on Thursday afternoon for an initial client meeting. I was eager to put a face to the client that I had spoken to on the phone two days prior, who seemed friendly, polite, and showed his good sense of humor during our call as well.
On Thursday, I waited patiently at Main Circle as Peter and Aidan headed from Carroll Hall to give me a lift to the office. Once there, we set up the files that we needed to complete on my computer, and welcomed the client as he came into the office a few minutes later. He was just as friendly as he had sounded over the phone, and he answered the questions we asked him about his finances to the best of his knowledge. Once we finished asking him the questions we had, we told him we would be in touch about the next steps in the process within the next couple of days. When I got back to campus, I wrote up the underwriting proposal for the client, and sent it to Aidan, who then forwarded it to the Accounting and Credit/Risk Management divisions. I could not believe how smoothly the process had gone up to that point, and was pretty excited when the team agreed to offer the client a loan.
Calling the client to set up the closing meeting was a rewarding experience in and of itself, but when we closed the loan with him on Saturday afternoon, I cannot put into words how worthwhile it was to see his reaction and his gratitude. He seemed confident in his ability to pay off the loan according to the terms we agreed upon, which I was happy to see. In addition, he seemed willing to participate in the financial empowerment programs that JIFFI offers, which will serve to make him more conscious about his financial budgeting from here on out. As I spent the rest of the afternoon in the library, I spent a little time thinking about how fast the process had moved along, and how awesome it was to get the opportunity to help a client out of a certain financial situation. Also, it was fun working with Peter and Aidan, for they were just as enthusiastic as I was to work with the client. I look forward to working with him as he pays off his loan obligations, and hope to take on additional clients in the future as well.
