Life & Work with Stephanie Pinto

Today we’d like to introduce you to Stephanie Pinto. 

Hi Stephanie, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself
Hello! My name is Stephanie and I run a blog called SavvySteph, where my motto is focused on helping youngsters become badass adults. This blog is focused on helping young people in the areas of schooling, academics, federal aid, money lessons, financial questions, life advice, and pretty much anything that they need to know to help them through the process of becoming an adult. The blog was created in hopes that someone will read it and learn from it to make their life easier. I, myself, struggled when I started adulting, and still do as I believe that adulting is a lifelong concept. In my opinion, the educational system of the United States does not do the greatest job in providing youngsters with the information needed to make informed and important decisions. Decisions that can create their own little legacy. I hope that the blog lets them see that they are smart and can use resources to make those decisions they need to make. I currently work in Higher Education as an Academic and Financial Aid Counselor. During my time as a counselor, I have seen how 16-22-year-old young adults go through vast difficulty because they were not equipped with adulting tools to help them be great. But having a guide could be useful to anyone going through that same process. I, myself, wish I had a guide to save me from foolish financial decisions and to show me that there are always different choices when you are open-minded to the world around you. I like to think of myself as the cool aunt that helps you out with life. 

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Creating this blog occurred during the COVID pandemic. I was working from home and it felt like a dreadful transition after being face-to-face with students every day while I was in the office. I realized that I needed to share what I had learned with these students, as I would get the same questions over and over about different life concepts that my students were confused on. The difficulty was that I could not share what I wanted with them because when you are a counselor to college students, the company you work for limits you on how you can guide a student. Since I could not provide advice or suggestions that were not focused on academics or federal aid through my job, I figured I would make a blog that would have the answers that I thought were appropriate on the internet for all to see. Doing this was not easy. I worried about what youngsters would think, as my main intended audience were youngsters. 16-22 – year-olds are young and have their whole life in front of them and maybe they would think I was too old and not cool for saying the word “lit” and seem unrelatable. I went on a very long hiatus where I did not blog for about a year and a half. I think I mentally thought it would be too hard to do this but I was able to overcome my own fears and come back to the root cause of why I started this in the first place: the kiddos. I want to help them be badass adults because I think I have become a pretty badass adult to this day and everyone can become one too! 

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I am a full-time employee and I run the SavvySteph Blog on the side. I currently work as a Financial Aid and Academic Counselor for a university here in Arizona. This means that I help about 300 students obtain accurate schedules to fit their degree needs and assure they have the appropriate federal aid awarded and have any balances paid on time. I specialize with students in the college of business and work with many interesting students who have businesses of their own or work part-time for many interesting companies. I am known for being direct and to the point but guarantee that my work is done to assure that my students are provided the best service I can provide. I am mostly proud of my ratings as a counselor that my students give me. I have averaged a 4.8/5 on surveys as their counselor and it is rewarding to know I am making a difference in their lives. It’s fulfilling knowing that my tribulations in life can help mentor these students where the educational formalities fail. I believe that organization sets me apart from others. My brain strives on organization and my ability to have everything compartmentalized has allowed me to succeed in a professional work setting and is a quality that is valued in many workplaces. I am addicted to a planner and I know that it is a critical tool in my everyday life that allows me to be efficient. 

What would you say have been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
A lesson I have learned is to not yearn for perfection. This has been a lesson that has been very difficult for me because I grew up believing that perfection was the only thing that mattered for a person to obtain success. I realized how unrealistic striving for perfection was when I started blogging. My audience doesn’t want perfection, they want and deserve the truth. In all its glory, whether it is happy, strict, silly, or constructive. While I was petrified about not being perfect, I had many visitors visit the blog and have over 200 comments that are still pending review. If anything, I realized that people care about content and that if it’s helpful to them, they will come back for more. So here I am, ready to give them all that I have! 

Contact Info:

• Email: savvystephblog@gmail.com
• Website: https://savvysteph.com/
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/savvystephdotcom
• Other: www.tiktok.com/@savvystephdotcom

Image Credits
Maria Cabrera