First Generation | Lion VoicesFebruary 18, 2026

Closing Higher Ed Chapter for Retirement

Written By: Ian Silvester

In a mere three months, Janet Miller will end a nearly three decades career of working in higher education to pursue the dreams she is eager to fulfill in retirement. 

“It’s bittersweet,” she said from her office inside the Smith-Pendergraft Campus Center at the University of Arkansas – Fort Smith. “But I look at it as closing one chapter and opening another. I’m just really looking forward to spending that time with my husband and doing things that we’ve talked and dreamed about but haven’t had a chance to do.” 

For the last six and a half years, Miller has been helping students with financial questions. Previously, she spent over 21 years in financial aid at the University of Oklahoma. It has been a career spanning more than 27 years, Miller admitted, that it was not what she expected to do. 

“My original dream was to be a physical therapist,” Miller said, noting her associate degree in biology. “In the beginning, financial aid was only a job to help support my family.  But the more I worked in that position the more I saw that I was helping students, and that was very rewarding.” 

Miller was a first-generation, non-traditional student. She is the only one of five siblings in her family to graduate from high school and the only one to earn a degree.  At the time, she was juggling being a stepmom, wife, full-time employee, and full-time student, which she said proved to be quite difficult. 

By 2005, Miller had gone back to school to complete her bachelor’s degree in social work from Southern Nazarene University—working full-time in the financial aid office at OU and taking night classes for her degree. 

“When I have students in my office, especially non-traditional students, I try to relate to them using my own experiences. I think it puts them a little more at ease knowing I was in a similar situation and that they can do it, too,” she shared. 

As a financial aid advisor, Miller’s job is to help students go to college.  

“There’s a misconception about not being able to go to college because you can’t afford it,” she said.  

Leaning on her personal and professional experience, Miller strives to help students see that there are ways to go. From helping host FAFSA Nights at local high schools to assisting students in their search for alternative financing, she said there are lots of opportunities available. 

“Number one, fill out the FAFSA, and then we can determine what you’re eligible for,” she insisted. “We’re not only interested in getting students to come here, but we want to help you figure out how to pay for school and be successful.” 

As the calendar flips closer to the end of her time at UAFS, Miller said this chapter of helping students find their way to college ends on a rewarding note. 

“There’s a pride in knowing that what you’re doing means something to somebody other than yourself," she said. "It means something to these students, and it’s something they will remember.” 

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