Classification: Four-year private college or university;
Historically Black 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 5: Now That You Are About to Graduate: Taking Control of Your
Life.
How Used:
- Entrance counseling.
- Financial literacy for sophomores, juniors and seniors.
- Exit counseling.
Program Description: Buy-in from the president and vice
president of fiscal affairs was instrumental in the early adoption of USA
Funds® Life Skills® at Oakwood College. Both became even
more committed to promoting financial literacy after results from the college's
student-retention survey showed that students wanted more information about how
to manage their finances. The financial-aid committee developed specific
strategies for using USA Funds Life Skills and made recommendations to the
director of financial aid.
The following three strategies subsequently were accepted and
implemented:
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 entrance-counseling sessions required
of all first-time borrowers. In addition to the topics traditionally covered in
entrance-counseling sessions, the financial-aid staff uses the PowerPoint
presentation from Modules 1 and 2 to introduce budgeting and other
money-management strategies. Students receive the student skills book for
Modules 1 and 2, as well as the personal-finance software.
Oakwood College uses Module 1: Get a Grip on Your Finances: Smart
Spending for Students as part of the Better Awareness Regarding Borrowers'
Questions sessions required each October of all sophomores, juniors and seniors.
Held in the college's skating rink, BARBQ sessions feature four or five stations
of different topics gleaned from the retention-survey data. These sessions are
offered by the financial-aid staff, the faculty and lenders, with approximately
600 students going through each station each year. The financial-aid staff
delivers the USA Funds Life Skills material, while the faculty offers study
skills, and the lenders focus on additional financial topics. Attendance is
taken at the end of the sessions and determines who will be able to complete
early registration for the spring term. Lenders also provide treats such as
pens, mouse pads and calculators. In addition, all BARBQ participants must
complete an evaluation of the sessions before receiving a ticket for the BARBQ
celebration — a barbeque-food event provided by the lenders. Ninety percent of
the students completing an evaluation report that they found the session
beneficial.
Module 5: Now That You Are About to Graduate: Taking Control of Your
Life is incorporated in the exit-counseling sessions for all graduating
students. The financial-aid staff supplements this USA Funds Life Skills module
with its own video of graduating students who end up in debt and face a debt
collector at their doors. Some of the topics that the staff stresses are credit
and how to use it, loan payments and staying in touch with borrowers' lenders or
servicers after graduation.
Staffing Requirements: The financial-aid staff is
responsible for delivering Modules 1, 2 and 5 in the three financial-literacy
activities described above.
Recommendations: Buy-in from the administration is very
important to the success of USA Funds Life Skills. The director of financial aid
recommends tying financial-literacy activities to retention-survey findings.
Oakwood's own research suggested the course of action that it pursued in
implementing USA Funds Life Skills. Participation in the activities should be
mandatory. The director of financial aid also sees great value in having the
entire staff trained to deliver USA Funds Life Skills.
Campus Contact:
Fred Stennis, Director of Financial
Aid
Phone: (256) 726-7473
E-mail: stennis@oakwood.edu