Teachable Moments for Personal Finance Education. Introduction

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1 Teachable Moments for Personal Finance Edcation Best Practices for Implementing USA Fnds Life Skills and Other Financial Literacy Resorces Introdction Stdents who leave yor instittion eqipped with both their academic credential and with the skills to manage their time and money are likely to have greater sccess in their lives following gradation. There are a wide range of opportnities for incorporating personal finance information in a stdent s postsecondary edcation experience. Becase USA Fnds Life Skills offers a highly flexible crriclm of more than 30 different personal finance and stdent sccess online corses, colleges and niversities have fond a variety of ses for the program to promote financial literacy among their stdents. This pblication provides examples of the diversity of implementations of USA Fnds Life Skills and other financial literacy resorces among colleges and niversities. If yor instittion already is sing USA Fnds Life Skills, a review of these best practices may spark some new ideas for serving additional stdent poplations with personal finance edcation. If yor instittion is considering a new financial literacy initiative, this pblication can save yo time by highlighting sccessfl implementations at other instittions. Here are examples of some of the ways that postsecondary instittions have deployed USA Fnds Life Skills and other financial literacy resorces to benefit their stdents. 1

2 Academic Programs Incorporating personal finance instrction in academic programs is among the most effective ways to inflence stdents personal finance behaviors. Faclty members generally are spportive of approaches that advance their instrctional goals. As part of a larger Indiana University initiative, the Indiana University-Prde University Indianapolis camps offers stdents three one-credit corses focsing on personal financial management. Dring the first corse in the series, Collegiate Personal Finance, stdents stdy a wide range of money-management and finance-related topics from nderstanding the financial aid process, to paying for college, to identity theft, to managing finances after college. The corses also incorporate speakers, video presentations, and hands-on grop exercises that involve practical financial-related assignments, sch as reqesting and reviewing credit reports for inaccracies and possible identity theft. Stdents complete corses from USA Fnds Life Skills as homework to reinforce corse content and allow them to apply that information to their specific sitation, from repaying stdent loans to managing credit wisely. Financial aid administrators at Sitting Bll College, a tribal college located in Fort Yates, N.D., treat canceled classes as an opportnity to instill in stdents personal finance edcation. Rather than canceling a class when the instrctor is not available, financial aid staff members se the class time to talk abot personal finance isses and introdce corses from the USA Fnds Life Skills crriclm. Staff at Sitting Bll College have fond that implementing financial literacy edcation in the classroom when stdents normally wold have class is an effective way to teach stdents personal finance concepts. At the University of Hawaii at Manoa, stdent peer mentors work with faclty and staff to promote financial literacy across camps. Headqartered in Tampa, Fla., Ultimate Medical Academy is a private career college that offers a variety of programs for health care occpations at two locations and online. By incorporating eight USA Fnds Life Skills corses into its instittional learning management system, UMA has integrated USA Fnds Life Skills into its online crriclm. As stdents progress throgh their corse assignments, they enconter USA Fnds Life Skills as one of those assignments. UMA has fond this implementation to be an extremely effective way of making personal finance edcation part of its stdents edcational experience. At the University of Hawaii at Manoa, the flagship camps of the University of Hawaii system, faclty in the Shidler College of Bsiness and College of Tropical Agricltre & Hman Resorces, Department of Family & Consmer Sciences se USA Fnds Life Skills as a complement to reglar corse work. Faclty have selected for to five USA Fnds Life Skills online corses as assignments in a personal financial planning corse for finance stdents and a corse on women and work for social work stdents. Conseling of Stdent Loan Borrowers With its emphasis on minimizing and managing stdent loan debt, USA Fnds Life Skills can spport, spplement and reinforce the advice that stdent loan borrowers receive throgh federally reqired loan conseling. To promote prdent se of stdent loans and help stdents nderstand the impact of taking on nsbsidized debt, Glendale Commnity College in Glendale, Ariz., provides USA Fnds Life Skills corses to all stdents applying for nsbsidized Stafford loans. Stdents learn abot alternative options for paying for college and their stdent loan repayment options. Hawaii Commnity College in Hilo, Hawaii, ses USA Fnds Life Skills corses to consel three different grops of borrowers. First-time borrowers complete corses on paying for college, bdgeting and repaying stdent loans. Second-time borrowers review corses on managing their academic and personal lives while on camps, as well as managing credit card and stdent loan debt and avoiding identity theft. Third-time borrowers complete corses on preparations for gradation, finding employment and living on a bdget after gradation. 2

3 Hntington Jnior College, a private two-year college in Hntington, W.Va., institted a Financial Aid Literacy Class for firsttime stdent loan borrowers and for any interested stdents. The 90-minte-long class helps stdents nderstand the importance of money management. The class takes a nts and bolts approach to help stdents nderstand the isses of needs verss wants, how to bdget, the stdent loan process, the implications of borrowing stdent loans, borrowing only the amont of fnds necessary to pay edcation-related expenses, and minimizing stdent loan debt to ensre repayment is manageable. Mai College, which is part of the 10-camps University of Hawaii system, asks all first-time stdent loan borrowers to complete two of five USA Fnds Life Skills corses assigned by the school. The corses teach stdents abot living on a bdget while in school, managing their personal life and school life, and gaining an nderstanding of credit reports. Prior to implementing USA Fnds Life Skills in 2009, Mai College offered in-person workshops at the beginning of the semester, bt fond those workshops failed to reach all the stdents. College administrators report they are able to reach all targeted stdents sing the USA Fnds Life Skills corses. As part of an initiative to improve its cohort defalt rate, Mohave Commnity College in western Arizona asks all new stdent loan borrowers to complete three USA Fnds Life Skills corses and answer at least 70 percent of the post-test qestions correctly. The corses inclde information on managing and repaying stdent loans and bdgeting while in school. To help its stdents minimize their edcation debt and eqip them to repay their loans, Texas State Technical College Harlingen, which is part of the only state-spported technical college system in Texas, provides USA Fnds Life Skills corses to its Direct Loan borrowers. Stdents who are taking ot sbsidized loans complete corses abot managing their academic, personal and financial lives while in school. Stdents borrowing nsbsidized loans choose additional corses abot managing credit and debt, establishing savings and avoiding identity theft. The financial aid office provides all TSTC Harlingen stdents with access to the entire USA Fnds Life Skills crriclm throgh a page of financial literacy resorces on the college s website. Trckee Meadows Commnity College in Reno, Nev., ses USA Fnds Life Skills to provide additional conseling to stdent loan borrowers. The college offers borrowers with loan balances greater than $15,000 corses on the options for paying for higher edcation, bdgeting, and stdent loan repayment plans. Borrowers whose debt levels exceed $20,000 take additional corses on managing a bdget following gradation and options for dealing with stdent loan repayment isses. The college s se of USA Fnds Life Skills complements its instittional goals for stdent retention and gradation and minimizing aggregate stdent loan debt. Stdent Sccess Programs Becase stdents financial problems can lead to withdrawal from college prior to completion, financial literacy can promote stdent retention and persistence to gradation. Colleges and niversities have fond several innovative ways to enhance the personal financial skills of their stdents. Daytona State College implemented USA Fnds Life Skills in Febrary 2013 to complement defalt prevention and aversion activities, providing financial literacy resorces to more than 500 stdents. By offering ongoing classroom presentations throghot the academic year (with many professors offering extra credit for modle completion) and USA Fnds Life Skills promotion at camps-wide events, financial literacy edcation remains top of mind throghot the school year. Daytona State College also participates in Financial Literacy Awareness Month (every April), when stdents are entered to win a scholarship each time they complete a USA Fnds Life Skills corse. Soth Montain Commnity College in Phoenix offers its stdents for $500 scholarships for enhancing their personal financial awareness. To qalify, stdents mst complete USA Fnds Life Skills corses with a score of 80 percent or better on the post-corse assessment, or participate in another financial literacy event that the college hosts. As part of the scholarship application, stdents write a 250- to 500-word essay explaining what they learned from the financial literacy training and how they plan to se that knowledge in the ftre. Syracse University in New York ses USA Fnds Life Skills as a key component of its comprehensive financial literacy program. The program known as I Otto Know This! is named for the niversity mascot, Otto the Orange. The niversity also has sed USA Fnds Life Skills corses in presentations to stdents in sororities, fraternities and residence halls; as part of a program for incoming freshman stdents; as part of the McNair Scholars Program that helps stdents make the transition to gradate school from ndergradate stdies; in the freshman form and transfer stdent classes; and as part of training for their Stdent to Stdent edcators. To help its stdents, who often take on significantly more debt to prse legal edcation, the University of Miami School of Law in Florida offers a set of USA Fnds Life Skills corses to three different grops of law stdents. First-year stdents take the following corses as a complement to their entrance conseling: How Will I Pay for My Gradate Edcation? How Do I Bdget While in Gradate School? How Mch is My Gradate Degree Going to Cost? How Do I Manage My Credit Card Debt? What Do Credit Reports Mean to Me? USA Fnds Life Skills corses for second-year law stdents inclde: How Can I Protect Myself From Identity Theft? What Do Credit Scores Mean to Me? How Can I Control Spending While in School? How Do I Manage My Stdent Loans While I m in School? 3

4 New-Stdent Orientation Becase entering stdents may have little previos experience managing their personal finances independently, incorporating information from USA Fnds Life Skills into new-stdent orientation programs can help stdents adapt to one of the challenges they face in college: being responsible for many of their own financial decisions. St. Philip s College kicks off each semester by playing financial literacy Price is Right with new stdents. Gradating law stdents take the following corses, as a complement to exit conseling: What Do I Need to Know Abot Repaying My Stdent Loans? What If I Have Troble Repaying My Stdent Loans? Where Does My Paycheck Go? How Do I Manage My Debt? How Mch Income Shold I Expect? University of Miami School of Law stdents also are welcome to take any corses beyond those reqired if they have an interest in that specific corse. Camps administrators report the USA Fnds Life Skills corses have prompted increased discssion with stdents abot topics, sch as attendance costs and retrning loan fnds not needed for edcational expenses. Staff also report that the spport of the law school dean was critical to the sccess of this financial literacy initiative. At the University of Hawaii at Manoa, the Access to College Excellence, or ACE, program ses sophomore peer mentors to teach freshmen enrolled in the corse. A few weeks of the corse are focsed on bdgeting and managing money. The program ses USA Fnds Life Skills first to train the sophomores, and then the freshmen are reqired to take the same corses. The sophomore peer mentors first complete the USA Fnds Life Skills corse on bdgeting. Third- and forth-year finance stdents then lead a presentation and discss bdgeting. Stdents in the program keep track of their expenses for two weeks before completing the USA Fnds Life Skills online bdgeting activity. Stdents then create a bdget and try to stick to that bdget for an additional two weeks. After the exercise, many of the stdents report they spent mch of their money on wants rather than needs, and that the discipline of tracking expenses and trying to stick to a bdget gave them a new perspective on managing their finances. Lincoln College of Technology, which offers programs in the atomotive, health sciences, bsiness and information technology, skilled trades, cosmetology and clinary arts fields, ses USA Fnds Life Skills as part its orientation classes. At each camps, a financial literacy adviser is responsible for administering USA Fnds Life Skills. Dring the first-term orientation class, stdents participate in an in-person grop presentation of the corse How Will I Pay for My Higher Edcation? Dring stdents second term, stdents receive a presentation of How Do I Live on a Bdget While I m in School? as part of another in-person grop presentation. Stdents are reqired to complete a personal bdget as homework for the next class session. Advisers then review each bdget with the individal stdent. Advisers also se other USA Fnds Life Skills corses as the opportnities arise, at special events or if they are invited into the classroom dring the remaining terms of the stdent s program. Cochise College, a commnity college system in sothern Arizona, reqires all stdents who will receive financial aid to take five USA Fnds Life Skills corses dring their orientation sessions. The reqired corses focs on basic financial aid information, managing and repaying stdent loans and bdgeting. Mai College ses the USA Fnds Life Skills interactive bdgeting exercise as part of its FroshCamp, a freshman orientation program. The exercise challenges stdents to live on a set bdget for a month. Grops of stdents in the orientation program go throgh the exercise, voting for their favored options for controlling their monthly expenses. To prepare incoming stdents, San Jacinto College ses USA Fnds Life Skills corses in freshman orientation programs at all three of its Hoston-area campses. New stdents learn abot developing and following an academic plan, stdy skills, and creating and following a bdget to control their expenses. St. Philip s College, a two-year college in San Antonio, Texas, kicks off each semester by playing financial literacy Price is Right with new stdents dring orientation. Stdents are selected to participate by having their names called by one of the two game show hosts. The hosts ask the grop of players finance-related qestions, and the person who selects the closest nmber withot going over wins prizes, inclding T-shirts, backpacks, bookstore gift cards, mgs and other camps gear. The adience participates by shoting ot gesses to help inflence the players decisions. The game show environment helps stdents get excited abot learning financial literacy concepts as they are introdced to USA Fnds Life Skills. 4

5 Peer Mentoring Becase stdents often trn to their peers for advice, colleges and niversities have fond that trained peer mentors can effectively disseminate personal finance best practices to classmates. Claflin University offers financial literacy throgh its Money SMART (Save Money and Redce Time in Debt) program to all enrolled stdents. The program ses peer mentors to teach financial edcation topics sch as bdgeting, identity theft, credit card management, scholarships, stdent loans and debt, and paying for college. The peer mentors lead interactive discssions and exercises that spplement the online USA Fnds Life Skills corses that stdents are reqired to complete based on classification and academic stats. In the academic year, the Money SMART team condcted more than 40 workshops and events that reached nearly 2,000 stdents. Events inclded Lnch and Learn/Chat and Chew sessions, weekly financial tips, panel discssions, classroom visitations, workshops, residential hall meetings, gest speakers, freshman and sophomore assemblies, stdent organization meetings, and camps-wide activities. Claflin attribtes mch of the program s sccess to sing creativity, relevant and catchy titles, incentives and social media to deliver peerto-peer financial literacy. Moreover, collaboration with stdent organizations, niversity departments, and academic programs significantly enhance efforts to target different grops of stdents in small settings. Money SMART also provides edcational opportnities for faclty and staff, which allow for frther integration of financial literacy into conversations in the classroom and throgh academic spport service programs that target improving stdent sccess. In a program dbbed S.A.F.E. Stdent Advocates for Financial Empowerment peer mentors at Peblo Commnity College have been instrmental in weaving money management information into a S.T.E.P.S. for College Sccess corse. Stdents srveyed in that corse and in new-stdent orientation by S.A.F.E. peer mentors provided feedback to determine appropriate USA Fnds Life Skills corses now imbedded in the S.T.E.P.S. crriclm. The college also depends on the peer mentors for additional financial literacy presentations and development of videos and marketing tools for stdent financial edcation. The work of these peer mentors is part of an internship that offers corse credit and recognition for service leadership at the Peblo, Colo., school. Based on a 2005 assessment of stdent financial interests, the University of Hawaii at Manoa lanched a comprehensive financial literacy project in Central to the UH Manoa financial literacy program was the development of a peer edcator model. The school recrits peer edcators from finance stdents who are enrolled in a certified financial planner track, members of the stdent chapter of the Financial Management Association, peer leaders for new-stdent orientation and Access to College Excellence learning commnities, as well as from the College of Edcation practicm corse. Under the gidance of faclty, stdents prepared presentations for a variety of forms on topics, inclding bdgeting and smart spending, gradating debt-free, and managing credit. The program began by sing peer edcators to teach incoming stdents abot personal finance isses dring new-stdent orientation. Based on the sccess of those presentations, UH Manoa expanded its financial literary training, delivering financial literacy corses to freshman learning commnities. The peer edcators also led workshops for stdents with the cooperation of Stdent Spport Services, Cooperative Extension, Stdent Life and Development, and Financial Aid Services. Recognizing the importance of financial edcation and the sccess of the program, the niversity administration placed responsibility for its financial literacy program in its Office of Undergradate Edcation to enhance the focs on stdent sccess and on developing active levels of participation in stdent learning. Interacting with parents and providing information in ways that are convenient to stdents have been key to the sccess of the financial literacy program at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore in Princess Anne, Md. The school is developing interactive programs condcted in stdents dorms and also has kept parents informed abot the lessons the peer edcators are sharing with stdents, to reinforce the messages. Among the positive reslts to date have been stdent inqiries abot redcing the amont of stdent loan dollars offered. Satisfactory Academic Progress USA Fnds Life Skills offers corses that spport strategies for academic sccess for example, developing and following an academic plan, stdy skills, and coping with stress and other challenges that stdents face while in school. This content can assist stdents who are failing to meet their school s academic standards. At Cochise College, if a stdent fails to make the satisfactory academic progress that is federally reqired to qalify for ftre financial aid, that stdent mst take five USA Fnds Life Skills corses. These corses provide information abot setting academic and career goals and meeting the obligations of postsecondary edcation. Stdents mst answer at least 70 percent of the corse assessment qestions correctly to qalify for additional financial aid. All Mai College stdents who fail to make satisfactory academic progress are reqired to complete two USA Fnds Life Skills corses as part of the satisfactory academic progress appeals process. The two corses are How Do I Manage My School Life? and How Do I Manage My Personal Life While I Am in School? Mohave Commnity College stdents who fail to make satisfactory academic progress mst complete USA Fnds Life Skills corse as part of the appeals process. The corses cover stdent loan repayment, bdgeting, and strategies for academic sccess and managing stdents personal life while in school. 5

6 TRIO Programs The recent addition of financial literacy as one of the core services to be provided throgh components of the federal TRIO programs has prompted TRIO programs at several colleges and niversities to trn to USA Fnds Life Skills as an additional resorce for their participants. Arizona Western College in Yma, Ariz., ses components of USA Fnds Life Skills in its TRIO KEYS Stdent Spport Services program. The corses provide financial advising to approximately 240 stdents to promote retention, gradation and transfer rates of first-generation, low-income and disabled stdents. The TRIO Stdent Spport Services programs at Mai College se components of USA Fnds Life Skills to provide financial advising to stdents. There also are plans for the Edcational Opportnity Center, a TRIO program to promote access to the commnity, and Title III, a program to encorage Native Hawaiian stdent sccess, to begin sing USA Fnds Life Skills. Abot USA Fnds Life Skills USA Fnds Life Skills is an online financial literacy and stdent sccess program designed to help stdents learn to manage their money and time wisely while in school and after gradation. The content is organized into easy-to-se online corses that can be cstomized for a specific adience. Topics inclde paying for college, managing stdent loans and credit card debt, living on a bdget, and managing school and personal life. USA Fnds Life Skills incorporates post-corse assessments and srveys to help measre knowledge and application of key personal finance concepts. Visit the USA Fnds website at or contact yor USA Fnds representative for more information abot USA Fnds Life Skills. USA Fnds Life Skills corses help stdents make better choices abot spending their money. LS United Stdent Aid Fnds, Inc. All rights reserved. 6