Jan Price ‘80 was indoctrinated into college life early, during the time when her father, William C. Allred, Jr., was the director of financial aid and dean of admissions and financial aid at Virginia Intermont from 1971-1980. Price lived in Bristol from 6th grade through her time as a college student.
The apple hasn’t fallen far from the tree. In choosing a career path, Price was deeply influenced by her late father through his work and his approach to fairness and justice that resonated with her. (*Allred passed away in June – see obituary excerpt below.)
Price finished high school after three years and decided to go to college as an “early admission” student. VI seemed the logical choice, she recalls. She began working in the financial aid office the summer before starting college, typing award letters for new students.
“I loved every minute as a student,” she says. “It’s where I learned financial aid from my dad, which I’ve practiced for many decades. I love working with students.”
Price graduated from VI after three years with a Bachelor of Arts in biology.
“My junior year I worked in the chemistry lab with Dr. Daphne Haynes, in physics/mathematics tutoring with William Buckner, and briefly, in the College’s bookstore,” she recounts. “I changed from English to biology as my major because biology had a tight-knit group of students in the department and because Dr. Martin Hamilton and William Wright were such great teachers.”
Price currently works with students at the Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine (VCOM) and was the first director of financial aid at the College’s new Spartanburg campus, now in its third year. (VCOM’s main campus is in Blacksburg, Va.) Previously, Price owned her own consulting firm in Los Angeles for 10 years, advising schools with accreditation and financial-aid-related issues. She has also held positions as campus director and interim director of admissions.
Looking back, Price says, “My biology degree has served me in good stead over the years working in health-science and health-related institutions as a consultant or as their Director of Financial Aid.”
*William Allred, Jr., died June 14, 2013. He worked for 25 years in higher education as an instructor in history and an administrator in the area of college enrollment and financial aid. A lifelong historian of racial relations, Allred was active in the Civil Rights movement of the 1960′s. In his work, he maintained the same heart for justice and fairness which motivated his civil rights work. Read full obit here.