Kansas City Kansas Community College: Kansas City, Kan.

Classification: Two-year public college or university.

Modules Used:

  • Module 1: Get a Grip on Your Finances: Smart Spending for Students.
  • Module 2: Seek out Financial Aid: Funding Resources and Financial Obligations.
  • Module 3: Work Hard but Smart: How to Be Successful in School and Graduate on Time.
  • Module 4: Take Control of Your Future: Finishing School and Repaying Your Loans.
  • Module 5 Now That You Are About to Graduate: Taking Control of Your Life.

How Used: Freshman-orientation class.

Program Description: USA Funds® Life Skills® serves a dual purpose — financial literacy and debt management — at Kansas City, Kansas Community College. The program is integrated into the freshman-orientation classes. Teaching one of these classes led the student-loan coordinator to recognize that the USA Funds materials could advance the debt-management goals of the financial-aid office, as well as the specific financial-aid and money-management goals of the freshman-orientation classes. The classes, with a maximum enrollment of 20 students per section, are offered during the fall, spring and summer terms. After collaborating with the coordinator of the freshman-orientation program, the instructors were asked to use Module 1: Get a Grip on Your Finances: Smart Spending for Students along with the chapter on money management and financial aid in the textbook. In addition, instructors received a complete set of USA Funds Life Skills materials, so they could have the option of incorporating information from the other modules as appropriate.

All instructors in the freshman-orientation classes have the option of incorporating Module 2: Seek out Financial Aid: Funding Resources and Financial Obligations, Module 3: Work Hard but Smart: How to Be Successful in School and Graduate on Time, Module 4: Take Control of Your Future: Finishing School and Repaying Your Loans and Module 5: Now That You Are About to Graduate: Taking Control of Your Life as they deem appropriate. Some instructors use all of the modules in class, while others choose to use selected modules as homework assignments.

Staffing Requirements: The freshman-course instructors are responsible for implementing Module 1, as well as any of the other modules they opt to use in their classes.

Recommendations: The most-expedient route to implementing USA Funds Life Skills is to link it to existing initiatives. Establishing the benefits of the program is critical as well. For example, the student-loan coordinator, who teaches a section of the freshman-orientation class at KCKCC, identified the gaps in the treatment of financial aid in the textbook. She was successful in making the case that the USA Funds Life Skills materials represented a superior approach to the treatment of financial topics.

Campus Contact:
Deborah Alexander, Student Loan Coordinator
Phone: (913) 288-7144
E-mail: debalex@toto.net