Classification: Four-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 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:

• Entrance interviews.
• Exit interviews.
• Money-management talk.

Program Description: Financial literacy and debt management go hand-in-hand at The Art Academy of Cincinnati. The institution enjoys a very low cohort-default rate, and it works hard to maintain that status.

To that end, the financial-aid staff requires students to participate in online entrance and exit counseling, as well as group entrance and exit interviews. Because this is a small institution with limited financial-aid staff, the financial-aid office invites USA Funds^® staff to lead its group entrance and exit interviews. USA Funds Life Skills^® Module 1: Get a Grip on Your Finances: Smart Spending for Students, and Module 2: Seek out Financial Aid: Funding Resources and Financial Obligations, are integrated into the group entrance interview sessions conducted by USA Funds staff members for all entering students at AAC. 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, are used in the group exit-interview sessions conducted by USA Funds staff members.

Module 1 also is incorporated into the money management talk sponsored by the students-services staff. In addition, the student-services staff invited USA Funds to give a talk on checking and money management as part of a luncheon series, which was open to all students.

Staffing Requirements: A USA Funds staff member uses Modules 1 and 2 for the entrance interviews and Modules 4 and 5 for the exit interviews.

Recommendations: The financial-aid staff recommends that each campus identify the best strategy for delivering USA Funds Life Skills. At AAC, the financial-aid staff turned to USA Funds consultants, in the belief that their broad background in financial management would serve their students well. The financial-aid staff is hopeful that their student-services colleagues will be able to participate in a USA Funds Life Skills train-the-trainer workshop and begin using the program more extensively. The financial-aid staff also collects giveaways at conferences to include in small gift bags to students as they complete the group exit interviews.

Feedback from students participating in these financial-literacy/debt-management activities has been positive.

Campus Contact:
Karen Geiger, Director of Financial Aid
Phone: (513) 562-8751
E-mail: klind@artacademy.edu