Flexible program teaches students effective management of time and money

USA Funds to Introduce Life-Skills Course for College Students

INDIANAPOLIS—USA Funds^®, the nation's largest education-loan guarantor, has announced the development of a flexible training program that will equip postsecondary institutions to teach their students to manage their time and money wisely while they are on campus and after graduation. Life Skills^SM was developed in response to concerns from financial-aid professionals, college students and their parents, and debt-management experts, who said that information currently available fails to adequately prepare students for the money- and time-management responsibilities they face.

"Too many students graduate from college burdened with thousands of dollars in education-loan and credit-card debt and lacking a clear understanding of how much they owe or how they will repay their debt," said Carl C. Dalstrom, USA Funds president and CEO. "Life Skills is designed to make students wiser consumers of higher education by teaching them basic strategies for managing their finances and for completing their degree work in a timely manner."

USA Funds will introduce Life Skills as a pilot program at 25 colleges, universities and career schools this fall. The course will be available to other USA Funds customers at no cost beginning January 2002.

The program consists of five modules, which cover the following topics:

• Managing money wisely while in school.
• Obtaining and using financial aid responsibly.
• Completing higher-education degree programs in a timely manner.
• Succeeding in college and beyond.
• Repaying education loans.

"Life Skills serves as a blueprint for life," said Greg Leis, director of Student Financial Services at ITT Educational Services in Indianapolis and chairman of USA Funds' Default-Prevention Council, which guided development of the Life-Skills program. "Students will be exposed to the kind of information, instruction and skills that remain with them long after they graduate."

Each school may tailor the information to meet the unique needs of its students. Schools can use the instruction in conjunction with borrower entrance- and exit-counseling sessions. The program can be delivered as part of counseling by the campus financial-aid office or through other student services, for example, as part of student-orientation or residence-hall activities.

USA Funds will provide demonstrations of Life Skills during the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA) conference in Nashville, Tenn., July 22-25.

Life Skills is the latest development in a multi-million-dollar initiative launched by USA Funds in 1999 to help postsecondary institutions achieve measurable reductions in their student-loan default rates.

USA Funds is a nonprofit corporation that supports access to education by providing financial and other valued services to those who pursue, provide or promote education. USA Funds guarantees education loans for students and parents throughout the nation. In addition, USA Funds serves as the designated guarantor of federal education loans in nine states: Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii and the Pacific Islands, Indiana, Kansas, Maryland, Mississippi, Nevada and Wyoming.