Classification: Private career college.

Modules Used:

• Module 1: Get a Grip on Your Finances: Smart Spending for Students.
• Module 5: Now That You Are About to Graduate: Taking Control of Your Life.

How Used:

• Orientation.
• Exit classes.

Program Description: The director of default aversion and the debt-management specialist worked together to introduce USA Funds^® Life Skills^® at the Fort Worth campus. The primary venues for delivering the program are monthly orientation sessions and monthly exit classes.

Module 1: Get a Grip on Your Finances: Smart Spending for Students is integrated into the orientation sessions. Budgeting is extremely important to these students because they must make monthly payments while they're enrolled. The debt-management specialist who facilitates this module adjusts the content to address her students’ special circumstances. She encourages students to maintain a journal as a way to get a handle on spending habits.

Module 4: Take Control of Your Future: Finishing School and Repaying Your Loans is incorporated into the exit classes, which are designed to prepare students for graduation and repayment.

According to the debt-management specialist, students have a much better understanding of their finances after completing the USA Funds Life Skills modules. She reports that students are highly engaged with the student skills books and the personal-finance software packaged with Module 1.

Staffing Requirements: The debt-management specialist facilitates Modules 1 and 4 for orientation and exit classes respectively.

Recommendations: The borrower-support team recommends having a USA Funds representative come to campus to discuss the program in depth. In addition, attending a training workshop or visiting other campuses that use the program should be considered. Seeing someone else present the USA Funds Life Skills modules is helpful. Program presenters should be carefully selected.

Gaining initial buy-in from colleagues was challenging, but once they saw how the program was received by students, they were much more accepting of it.

Having someone outside the financial-aid office deliver the program was deemed effective, as well. Financial-aid paperwork often is handled so quickly that students don't take the time to ask questions. With USA Funds Life Skills, the administrative staff was able to break down the process and make it clearer for students. To maintain interest during the presentations, props such as magic wands, pom-poms and "money-sucking vampires" made all the difference.

Campus Contact:
Laura Grunewald, Debt Management Specialist
Phone: (817) 457-5076
E-mail: laura.grunewald@remingtonadmin.edu

Institution Contact:
Chuck Skidmore, Director of Default Aversion
Phone: (817) 457-5076
E-mail: chuck.skidmore@remingtonadmin.edu