American Student Assistance

American Student Assistance (ASA) is a non-profit organization whose mission is to help students successfully complete the financing and repayment of higher education by acting as a student loan guarantor. It is headquartered in downtown Boston, Massachusetts.

History

American Student Assistance was founded in 1956 under the name Massachusetts Higher Education Assistance Corporation (MHEAC). The organization began when a group of people approached Massachusetts local businesses for philanthropic donations with the idea of creating a pool of money to guarantee loans for higher education. MHEAC went on to become the nation’s first student loan guarantor. Its model of a student loan program—funded by local banks and insured by a non-profit organization—was replicated across the country and by 1965, there were 14 loan guarantors in the United States.

In 1990, the United States Department of Education designated MHEAC as the guarantor for Washington, D.C. By 1992, MHEAC had begun to expand its services nationwide, so the organization adopted a trade name of American Student Assistance to reflect that its services were available to U.S. student loan borrowers everywhere.

Alt (film)

Alt is a 2013 Venezuelan science-fiction short film written and directed by Alejandro Hernández. It tells the story of a woman whose perfect life spirals out of control after everything around her starts to mysteriously vanish.

Plot

Sofía is living the life she always wanted: a beautiful child, a successful husband and a nice house. One day, she wakes up with a series of visions she can't explain. Eventually, her family and every object that represents an emotional connection to her starts to dematerialize one by one.

Cast

Reception

Critical response

The film received mostly favorable reviews from critics. Richard Propes of The Independent Critic gave the film 3.5 stars out of 4, stating that Alt was "unquestionably what happens when you assemble the right cast and crew to bring a story to life in a way that is both intelligent and inspired", and that Hernández "transcends budgetary limitations with clarity of vision and a clear and concise story." Loida Garcia of Rogue Cinema praised the film, calling it "one of the best short films I have ever watched", while also complimenting the film's quality and wrote that it is "on par with all major motion pictures." Mark Bell of Film Threat gave the film a "fresh" review on Rotten Tomatoes and said "A film with an intriguing idea at its core." He criticized the film's ambiguousness and said that "the audience is left to do quite a bit of interpretation, and I can imagine some running wild with the option, while others just remaining confused."

Alt (surname)

Alt is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:

Offshore

Offshore may refer to:

Finance and law

Technology

Arts

Offshore (novel)

Offshore (1979) is a novel by Penelope Fitzgerald. It won the Booker Prize for that year. It recalls her time spent on boats on the Thames in Battersea. The novel explores the liminality of people who do not belong to the land or the sea, but are somewhere in between. The epigraph, "che mena il vento, e che batte la pioggia, e che s'incontran con si aspre lingue" ("whom the wind drives, or whom the rain beats, or those who clash with such bitter tongues") comes from Canto XI of Dante's Inferno.

List of Characters and Their Boats (in order)

Lord Jim

Maurice

Grace

Dreadnought

Offshore (hydrocarbons)

"Offshore", when used relative to hydrocarbons, refers to an oil, natural gas or condensate field that is under the sea, or to activities or operations carried out in relation to such a field. There are various types of platform used in the development of offshore oil and gas fields, and subsea facilities.

Offshore exploration is performed with floating drilling units.

References