People you should KNOW

The Temple News: What made you come to Temple?

Jason Bowie: Well honestly, when you’re looking for a job, you’re not really going to say “no” to anywhere, and when it comes to picking schools, especially in this area, Temple is definitely one of the leaders in what they do. It’s a huge school. It’s very diverse. The campus is great.

TTN: What kind of financial advising do you do?

JB: We’ll advise on pretty much everything we’re allowed to. The only thing we’re not allowed to talk about these days is the outside lenders, the outside loans you can get. We can’t really say who to go through. There’s a little conflict of interest there. When it comes to grant money or outside scholarships or the university, we’ll sort of guide you in the right direction to get [you started]. A lot of the outside scholarships are on the student, based on GPA, your grades, having your FAFSA completed, things like that, and we’ll sort of send them in the right direction. That’s why the Web site is such a useful tool, because it has all that stuff on there.

TTN: What do you think of the job thus far?

JB: It’s been good. I’m still here. There’s a lot of opportunity with the job at Temple, the university itself, especially with tuition remission and things like that and the overall work environment. It’s not too hard to come into work each day like at some places.

TTN: What do you do when you’re not advising?

JB: I’m living in the city, so the options are limitless when it comes to that. Summers down the shore, definitely. I’ll be driving down the shore like everyone else, like every other student. Some sports, I play basketball at the gym here, the pavilion.

TTN: Do you ever get crazy students or parents coming in here with problems?

JB: Me personally, I feel I look a little younger than most of the counselors here, so my difficulty is if you get an older parent of a student that you may not know, a freshman, and they just don’t know anything. It’s on the parents’ side, the job to figure everything out, and they may not trust me. I’ve had that problem happen maybe once or twice. The easiest thing to do is to explain the situation, and grab a supervisor. I’m confident in what I say so it’s usually not a big deal.

GT: If you could knock down any building in the world, what building would it be and why?

JB: If I could knock down any building in the world? I’m going to go with the Mets new ballpark. I’m a big Phillies fan.

Greg Trainor can be reached at greg.trainor@temple.edu.