Helping students navigate the financial aid process January 22, 2021 The complicated procedure has become even more difficult during the pandemic Back in pre-COVID times, Mandy Branch spent a lot of her time out in the field, giving presentations at high school financial aid nights, staffing tables at college resource fairs and meeting with students at their schools to help them navigate the ever-daunting FAFSA (Free Application for Financial Student Aid) form. Now, like many of the rest of us, her job as assistant director of outreach, training and communications for the University of Georgia’s Office of Financial Aid has gone virtual, and Branch and her team have been learning how to adjust and make it work.