Students Are Not Alone in Financial Need

Throughout this spring, all of us have focused our energies on caring for and supporting our students. You have done extraordinary work to ensure that they made it through a very turbulent semester and gone many extra miles to keep them engaged in their academic work and with NOVA. Several of you have been kind enough to share messages from your students that tell of both the enormous challenges they have faced and the significance of the connection they have kept with NOVA and with you. Over the past months, you and NOVA have played powerful roles in providing some level of consistency and stability when so much in our students’ lives has been disrupted. Thank you!

Even as you’ve been this grounding force in the lives of our students, however, the pandemic has also upended many of your lives as well. Against this backdrop, we’ve all worked to maintain our sense of community while social distancing, and lately, as the stay-at-home days have begun to add up, we’ve focused more on self-care and wellness for our colleagues and ourselves. Today, I am pleased to announce that NOVA will soon be adding another element of care to our community: an Employee Assistance Fund.

In collaboration with the NOVA Educational Foundation, NOVA’s Employee Assistance Fund will provide annual grants of up to $750 to employees (full- and part-time) facing financial emergencies. To support the fund, the Foundation is donating $25,000, members of Administrative Council are making leadership gifts and my family is contributing 10% of my salary. All of us recognize that our students are not alone in experiencing the financial consequences of this pandemic nor in finding themselves confronting unexpected financial situations. NOVA’s Employee Assistance Fund will help to support our colleagues who have dedicated themselves to supporting our students.

Look for more details soon in the Daily Flyer about the formal launch of the fund, which will be managed through Human Resources, and about how you can contribute to assist NOVA employees—your colleagues and friends—in their times of need.

As a spring semester unlike any other draws to an end, I hope you find time to reflect on all you have helped our students achieve. Your actions and dedication throughout have been exceptional, and I am so grateful to be a part of this community. Thank you!