Classification: Two-year public college or university.
Modules Used: Module 1: Get a Grip on Your Finances:
Smart Spending for Students.
How Used: Freshman-orientation course.
Program Description: The financial-aid director at Pratt
Community College recognized USA Funds® Life Skills® as a
significant financial-literacy tool and zeroed in on a target audience for the
program — freshmen. After attending a training workshop, the financial-aid staff
integrated important topics from Module 1: Get a Grip on Your Finances:
Smart Spending for Students, such as budgeting and money management, into
the financial-aid presentations to the orientation classes required of all
entering freshmen. In her ongoing quest to involve the instructional area, the
director of financial aid was able to partner with an instructor who is slated
to take the lead in delivering USA Funds Life Skills. This move supports the
director's goal of promoting the program as a student-retention tool in the
future. Beyond its use on campus, the director also has used appropriate
segments of the program very successfully in presentations to high-school
students.
The director of financial aid indicates that freshmen are better consumers as
a result of the USA Funds Life Skills information that they receive during
freshman-orientation classes. The fact that students come away from the class
wanting to avoid unnecessary debt suggests that they're taking their financial
decisions more seriously.
Staffing Requirements: The financial-aid staff has had
responsibility for implementing Module 1. An instructor will assume
responsibility for integrating Module 1 into the freshman-orientation
classes.
Recommendations: Moving USA Funds Life Skills from the
financial-aid office into the campus mainstream requires patience and strategic
thinking. At Pratt Community College, the financial-aid staff took
responsibility for delivering the program until staff from the academic area
could be tapped to take the lead. The staff’s next step is to identify those
successes that can serve to make senior administrators more aware of the
benefits of the program, especially in the area of student retention.
Campus Contact:
Debbie Boley, Director of Financial
Aid
Phone: (620) 672-9800, Ext. 248
E-mail: debbieb@prattcc.edu