4A Forming an Opportunity Belief

1.     I believe the Financial Aid Office needs to implement a program in which virtual consultants can assist students immediately with their situation.

2.     Apparently, there has been errors in the system that has caused students to not receive their full refund. These errors mainly include holding off disbursements, missing financial aid, and even surplus charges to students’ accounts. Thus, a multitude of students have been visiting the office in order to fix these problems, however, the lines have been extremely long ever since add/drop week ended. Students are giving up a significant amount of time from their day by stopping by Criser Hall for about 45 minutes to 1 hour and 30 minutes. They have no choice but to wait in line because they need the money to pay off bills, eat, obtain gas, do their laundry, etc. Unfortunately, this is nothing new and has been reoccurring in the beginning of every semester. Students are then forced to either wait until the lines die down or seek an alternative way of receiving funds in order to function. If there was a virtual platform established online, I’m certain that this problem could be resolved quickly and effectively. By now, I am 100% sure that there is room for improvement within the Financial Aid Office to help students instantly.

3.     Prototypical customer: UF students who rely on financial aid for money

4.     List of students:

a.     Bryce Hamilton

                                               i.     When did you realize that there was an issue?

“After hearing a lot of people receive their refunds, I logged on to my account and realized that my account was in the negative. Obviously, this didn’t make any type of sense because my financial aid is supposed to cover all of my expenses.”

                                             ii.     How did you go about resolving that issue?

“I stopped by the office the day after I found out about my situation and left within seconds because the line was so long to the point where people were standing outside. There was no way could wait because I had to go to class. I may have to visit again when everything slows down a bit.”

                                           iii.     What can be done to prevent the issue from happening again?

“UF has more than enough money to hire more employees, so they need to get on that, stat.”

b.     Desiree Jean

                                               i.     When did you realize that there was an issue?

“I literally haven’t gotten a penny from financial aid because the thing is, none of my funds have been disbursed. That seems funny to me because everyone else is receiving their Bright Futures and Florida Prepaid, and I’m stuck with absolutely nothing.”

                                             ii.     How did you go about resolving that issue?

“Today I had enough time to actually come in the office and wait. I was number 28 when I arrived and now I’m number 25, in a span of 25 minutes. I’m about to be here forever. It’s not like the decision is in my hands anyways, you know?”

                                           iii.     What can be done to prevent the issue from happening again?

“Everything is being digitalized these days. UF needs to get on board and save people’s time and energy from going all the way to Criser. I’m sure the engineering research team can come up with some type of software to help the office out.”

c.     Lisa Hemingway

                                               i.     When did you realize that there was an issue?

“I was one of the lucky ones that did get most of my money, but Bright Futures hasn’t disbursed for me. Come to think of it, that should have been one of the first sources to pay off my charges. I’m sick of this.”

                                             ii.     How did you go about resolving that issue?

“I walked straight into financial aid, put myself in the queue, and waited until I was called on. I already knew what type of environment I was getting myself into, and I came prepared. I brought my laptop with me and I watched some shows on Netflix to kill time. In the end, the employee was able to finally help me figure what was going on.”

                                           iii.     What can be done to prevent the issue from happening again?

“Honestly, UF may need to reconstruct this building and make it bigger to host more employees and students. I think this would definitely help speed up the process.”

5.     After listening to my peers’ responses, I was able to reconfirm how significant my opportunity really is. Students are just trying to focus on their academics but it’s rough because they have to worry about their financial aid not being handled correctly. The office knows that many students will pile in the tight space, and yet they aren’t taking any affirmative action in gradually resolving the problem.

6.     Compared to my original opportunity, nothing has changed. Everyone that I approached had a negative experience in Criser Hall. Well since much has not changed in my original belief, I feel like there are still improvements that can be made. One idea would be to assign the virtual assistants specific roles in which students can rely on for their certain issue. If the main goal of entrepreneurship is to resolve issues, then customer feedback should be of great importance in perfecting their opportunities. The customers are the ones will ultimately provide a source of revenue in order for the opportunity to stay in effect.