1 - "The Financial Aid Trap"
2 - "Steno Documentary Update - Win a Stentura 400 SRT!"
3 - "SimplySteno Closing Enrollment August 12th"
4 - "Control or Chaos - How to Study"
5 - "Find Your Steno Voice - Support Your Community"

The Financial Aid Trap (back to top)

About 8 years ago my wife and I decided to add a room to our house (okay...my wife decided). We hired a contractor, gave him a bunch of money, then watched nervously as his crew tore down the back wall of the house. Things started off well. Progress was steady. Then...not so much. Fewer workers came. Progress slowed. And we had a hole in the back of our house! So I contacted the contractor - "What's up?" "We have other jobs - that's all the guys I can spare," he explained. "Well, that's bull----," I fired back. "I have your money - you have a hole in your house - you really don't have many options," he responded. And there was nothing left to say. He was right. I felt helpless - trapped! But at least I had another room in a few months.

Now let's say that there was a chance that at the end of construction I would NOT have a new room. In fact, the house would be exactly the same as when I started, but I'd still be out the money and have all the stress. Welcome to financial aid for court reporting!

Students who sign up for financial aid are often trapped in the same manner with NOTHING to show for it at the end of the day. School is a risk - I understand that. No one is promising you will become a court reporter if you pay $40,000. But when a student collects financial aid, walking away empty handed just doesn't seem fair at times. I see 5 major problems with the financial aid experience. As it's often been said, it's easy to point out problems - solutions are hard! So I will try to point out solutions as well, although I'll be the first to admit that I don't have all the answers.

Problem #1 - Timeframe. Financial aid for court reporting, for the most part, is designed to last a student about 28-32 months. There are some safeguards in place when a student goes over without progressing - probation periods - even something the first school I worked for called "Double Secret Probation." But they are all designed to allow students to collect financial aid for as long as possible. In reality, it generally takes a student much longer than 28 months to complete a court reporting program - sometimes YEARS longer. Steno is a skill-based program, so there's no telling exactly how long it will take a student to master it. Some students WILL succeed in 28 months, but that's nowhere near the average. How can financial aid put a time limit on a skill-based program? BUT...I understand they must. It can't be an open-ended loan.

Solution - Either extend the amount of time a student can collect financial aid, or lower the cost of schooling. Even if everyone was honest about the amount of time it takes to complete this kind of program, there's no good in saying, "It's a 4-year program, but we're only going to provide you the first 2 years of financial aid." Let's be realistic and honest about the amount of time it takes.

Problem #2 - Pressure. As students realize their financial aid time limit is coming, they start doing the math. Most realize they will run out of financial aid before they run out of speeds to pass. This adds stress that does NOT help progress. The impending deadline doesn't promote faster learning - you can't cram for writing speed. The deadline tends to do the opposite - slow down the progress. Besides just dealing with the challenge of speedbuilding, there's now the added stress of money. Add to that that many students feel inferior - like losers - because they didn't keep up with an unrealistic schedule set down by financial aid. So you can add hints of depression into the mix as well. Speedbuilding, stress and depression. Not a very good cocktail for success.

Solution - Again, we need to be realistic and honest about how long this takes. We need to stop crushing student egos by making them feel they're always behind the curve, when in fact they are probably right on top of it.

Problem #3 - Trapped. You've probably seen the commercial for the Roach Motel - "Roaches check in, but they don't check out!" I'm not comparing students to roaches :) That said, the theme is the same - once you're on financial aid...you're trapped in financial aid! Because the moment you stop attending school, it's time to start paying up! That means that students are more likely to overstay their welcome - stick with the program much longer - keep adding money to the loan. Rather than paying back a $12,000 loan now, knowing they probably won't succeed in school, they choose to take a chance and pay back a $40,000 loan in a few years. It's simply a case of putting things off, hoping things are better in the future. But at what cost?!

Solution - I don't have a good answer for this one. Many students can't afford schooling without financial aid. And even though there are solutions out there now that cost only a fraction of what students would pay using financial aid, most of them require money up front - which many students don't have. My advice - if there is ANY way to avoid financial aid, do it.

Problem #4 - Illusion. Financial aid often gives the the illusion that you're playing with house money. It's not. It's YOUR money. You WILL be paying it back whether you have success or not. Just because you don't see your bank account dwindling doesn't mean you're not paying.

Solution - Don't bury your head in the sand. When you collect financial aid, you WILL have to deal with at some point.

Problem #5 - Honesty. And this goes out to the steno community, financial aid, schools and students. Many schools "sell" this as a 2-year program. Financial aid "sells" this as an under-3-year program. Some students convince themselves to keep taking that financial aid, even when they don't see a future in the court reporting field, simply because they don't want to start paying it back - or can't afford to.

Solution - Schools and teaching programs need to be honest about how long it takes. Financial aid needs to be extended to keep in line with the realities of the program. Students need to honest with themselves as to why they are staying in the program. "I can't afford to start paying back the money" isn't a good reason to add to that mound of financial aid.

I've seen this issue played out in every scenario. My sister (a court reporter) went through school, paid back her loans. My wife (once a court reporting student) had her loans dismissed because the school closed. One of my best friends racked up a $43,000 loan, then was forced to drop out of school and start paying that loan back. My advice? If you're currently on financial aid, make the very most of it. Make every dime count - study hard! If you are not on financial aid, do your best to avoid it. I understand that's not always possible. But if there's a way...

Steno Documentary Update - Win a Stentura 400 SRT! (back to top)

A few weeks ago we started filming for our documentary - On the Record - A Year in Stenography! Our first interview was with Doug Friend, current NCRA president. Couldn't have picked a better person to kick things off! Doug was easy to talk to, welcoming and insightful. We asked Doug to record a little message for students - you can check it out here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIgxgNQNbkI

We continue filming this week in Portland, Oregon, then next month at the NCRA convention in Philadelphia! So excited to be there and catch all the action. Will you be there? Make sure to say hello - we'll be the ones with the cameras in our hands, capturing every moment. We'll also be scheduling lots of sit-down interviews, so if you have an interesting story to share, PLEASE contact me before the convention so we can meet up - Marc@CourtReportingMovie.com. We are especially looking for live captioners who had to caption an emotional event as it happened. We want to discuss the difficulty of having to focus and hold back your own emotions in order to provide your helpful service. You can track our documentary progress at www.CourtReportingMovie.com

Uh...Marc...didn't you mention we could win a Stentura 400 SRT?!?! Yes! One of our movie sponsors is The Steno Doctor - www.StenoDoctor.com. And they have agreed to give the royal steno spa treatment to a Stentura 400 SRT that we are sending them. And then we're giving it away to one lucky student! So how can you win?

Step 1 - On Facebook, "Like" the Steno Doctor page HERE.
Step 2 - On Facebook, "Like" the Court Reporting Documentary page HERE.
Step 3 - Post a photo of yourself with your MANUAL steno machine on the Court Reporting Documentary page. Feel free to include a message as well like, "I want to win the 400 SRT!"

You must be a student currently working with a manual machine. We will verify that when we pick the winner. You may enter starting today, and a winner will be selected on August 20th. Thanks again to The Steno Doctor and all our wonderful sponsors. With their help we look forward to sharing this wonderful community with the outside world!

Visit our sponsors!!!

Stenovations - Home of the Lightspeed writer and DigitalCAT.
RealLegal - Complete resources for court reporters.
LiveDeposition - Live deposition streaming done right.
StenoDoctor - Authorized steno machine service provider.
SimplySteno - Simply the best online teaching platform.

SimplySteno Closing Open Enrollment August 12th! (back to top)

Thinking of joining the SimplySteno Plus online program? We will be closing open enrollment on August 12th, so sign up soon! Once you join, you have up to 3 months to start - your payment kicks in when you start, NOT when you pay. We close enrollment a couple times a year to keep a cap on the amount of students we teach. This allows us to give each student the amount of attention they need/deserve. When will enrollment open again? That just depends on how many students start working or move on. I invite you to read our testimonials and ask about our successful students.

SimplySteno offers 100% daily structure - each day is planned out for you down to the minute. No wondering which dictations to do or what to do with them! And we incorporate finger drills, faster dictations, slower dictations, name drills and other goodies into each lesson, along with a theme for each day. Steno practice isn't always exciting, but we've done our best to make each lesson one you look forward to doing!

How do you know what to work on if you never see your test results? You don't! We grade your tests and send them back in an average of 3 days along with helpful comments. Spotting your error patterns is the key to improvement. We help you do that.

For value, SimplySteno can't be beat! You'll pay less than $1500 a YEAR. Some programs charge close to that each MONTH! And we'll proudly put SimplySteno up against any teaching platform out there. Daily structure - massive audio and video libraries - on-demand turbo testing - constant feedback - it's all there. Check it out today!

Control or Chaos - How to Study (back to top)

Is it better to practice in a bubble or more real-life settings? A case can be made for both. I've always said that school isn't work - they're not the same. And your goal as a student should be to gain enough accurate speed to get the opportunity to work. Many students never reach that level, so I like the idea of that being your goal. So the idea of being able to practice under the best conditions - a quiet, controlled environment - makes sense. The more you can focus, the better you'll be able to absorb. Makes sense. Until...

I've told this story before. It was at the CA CSR exam about 15 years ago (I was reading warm up). During the test a student in the front row started to feel sick, so she got up and walked out...during the test! She didn't make any friends that day. No one from her testing group passed, and they had to wait 6 months to take the test again. And recently at the RPR exam, there was an equipment delay that put testing way behind schedule in one location. Students were NOT happy. Not quite bubble testing. Many students were thrown off their game. And it doesn't even have to be anything as severe as those examples. I've heard the "I failed that test because the girl next to me was pounding her keys!" statement a million times. Some of my favorites -

"She breathes too loud!"
"The reader was looking at me!"
"My cat jumped on my lap!" (online student, obviously)
"I smelled Doritos!"

So while learning in a controlled environment may help you absorb faster - if you can maintain those perfect conditions - learning in chaos may actually better prepare you overall. If you can learn to block outside stimuli while writing, you can create your own bubble anywhere. Once you learn to continue writing with a cat in your lap, a reader looking at you, another student breathing too loud and Doritos in the air, you'll be unstoppable!

All kidding aside, there's probably a happy place in the middle. You don't want to have a study environment next to a fireworks warehouse. But you also don't want to be sealed in a soundproof booth. I suggest a combination of both, so nothing throws you off your steno game.

Find Your Steno Voice - Support Your Community (back to top)

During our interview with Doug Friend for our documentary, Doug pointed something out that never clicked with me before. There was a time when the court reporter sat in silence. In fact, that was why many went into the occupation - they wanted to write on their steno machine and do their job - go unnoticed for the most part. Not everyone - but many. That may be ideal for a court reporter, but it's not ideal when it's time to promote this profession. Just like any profession, there must be a voice singing its praises and making its presence known. So there's quite the gap here, it seems, in the profession and the promotion.

Machine writers need voices. If you write on a steno machine, share that with the world. It may not feel natural to stand forward and be noticed, but for the sake of your profession, I urge you to share it proudly.

Thanks!
Marc Greenberg

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