Erika Grace | Carving Out College Futures

Courtesy of Erika Grace

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To see that Erika Grace was better prepared to understand financial management at a younger age than most of us may be a bit of an understatement. The founder and president of EG Collegiate Career Consulting (www.iwillsucceedincollege.com) says that early lessons shared with her as the oldest of two children about how to manage money have contributed to her success in doing so today.

“My father especially really instilled the principles of saving. I was told, ‘yes, you can have an allowance, but you’re going to have to do something for it.’ I did projects around the house, mowed the lawn and did household chores,” she says. “But the other component was keeping a cash box and a ledger book that had to be balanced in order to receive the next allowance. So not only did I have to do some tasks that were required for that allowance, but I also had to make sure I knew where my money went, had it tracked and kept the balance of what was left in the box.”

Erika, who grew up in Long Island and relocated to Florida as a young woman, spent much of her early career deeply entrenched in the financial and corporate world. From auditing and managed care accounting to management of customer financial services teams for such industry leaders as PriceWaterhouse Coopers, Eckerd Corporation and Tropicana Products, she quickly realized that while she had a head for numbers, she found opportunities to coach others, problem-solve and set-up and manage processes far more personally rewarding than straight accounting roles. Erika pursued Master’s program coursework as she began to explore other corporate roles including executive recruiting and payment processing. After more than ten years of developing a unique hybrid of corporate experience, diverse business skills and financial knowledge that could be beneficial to others on an individual basis, she formally set out to help and support a new audience with EG Collegiate Career Consulting: prospective college applicants and their families.

“I say that what I do is college planning for real world success. What I like to do when I work with families is assist them with the college application process itself and take a bigger picture approach to how you choose a college, making sure that you have all of the critical components of a decision – not just the grades you need to get into a school and a good essay. But also having a good feeling that the student is choosing a college because they’re going to select a degree that should lead to employment,” she says. “I encourage families to have those critical discussions about finances as a family. How is college going to be paid for? If there’s a need for a loan, what kinds of loans are we talking about for the student or the family? And how are they going to be paid back?”

Erika says that ideally students and families will begin working with her as soon as the student begins freshman year of high school, but that this isn’t always the case. When she does begin working with families, there are basic pieces of information that she asks them to bring to the table: the student’s grade level, GPA, their status of standardized testing completed or preparation for it, the student’s desired career choices, a target list of schools the student has in mind and whether or not the family has visited them. She says that for most families she meets, there are generally two common trouble spots.

“What I hear is this overriding sense of feeling lost. ‘What do we have to do? What is the school’s involvement in getting our student ready for standardized testing and all of the things that need to take place in advance for a potential college application?’ The other big concern is financial, and I think this may be more of a sign of the times than anything else. Many families are having to re-think their financial plans,” she says.

Next month, Erika hosts a free, informative seminar, being held three different times that is designed to provide some basic information and steps to begin a successful college application process. Dollars & $ense of College Planning is being offered by both EG Collegiate Career Consulting and Karen Zicht, CRPC, of SickleHunter Financial Advisors, on Thursday, Sept. 8 (6:30 p.m.) and Saturday, Sept. 10 (11 a.m. and 2 p.m.) at Safety Harbor Public Library, 101 2nd St. N. The free sessions also promise to offer key points and trends in the college planning timeline and financial aid assistance.

“Everyone’s career path is so different and unique, and I love working with students at such a critical age,” Erika says. “The sooner they know themselves and start drawing upon those strengths and resources that they have, the better off they will be down the road.”

Erika is an active member of the Dunedin North Rotary Club and a few local networking groups, and recently took on the added challenge of balancing work and home life by accepting the part-time job of campaign finance director for Congressman Gus Bilirakis and his re-election campaign. She and her husband and two dogs live in Safety Harbor, where she says you’ll usually find them at their favorite place – the park – taking a walk or enjoying a bike ride, if they’re not already at their other favorite place, the beach. But wherever she is and whatever she’s doing, for Erika, it’s about staying true to what fulfills you most, and this she tries to remind the students and their parents she consults.

“Success is a balance between meeting financial needs for whatever your situation is and that desire to just get out of bed and do what you’re doing and have that level of excitement about your work and bringing with you that passion, and passion is key,” she says.