USA Funds Default-Prevention Council Member Stresses Responsible Repayment of Student Loans

As financial-aid director of Jackson State University in Jackson, Miss., B.J. Moncure encourages her students to look at education loans as the last option for financing their education.

Through community-outreach programs and orientation sessions, Moncure and her staff make sure students and families are aware of federal grant programs available to low-income individuals, merit-based aid available to high-achieving students, school-based scholarship programs and other financial-aid options.

“We want to make sure they know how to find other sources of funding,” she says. “If they have to take out student loans, they can look at it as an investment in their future.”

Moncure, a member of the USA Funds^® Default-Prevention Council, used scholarship money and income from jobs to pay for her education at Tougaloo College in Jackson. She has worked in financial aid for more than 26 years — with about 13 of those years at Jackson State. During that time she says she’s seen students take on more and more education-loan debt as tuition and fees have increased.

About 80 percent of the 8,500 students at Jackson State use financial aid. “We stress to them that if they take out loans to pay for education, they have a responsibility to repay the loans, stay in compliance and use the deferment and forbearance options if they have difficulty repaying their loans,” Moncure says.

Incoming freshmen and their families have the opportunity to attend orientation sessions that address financial-aid sources as well as other topics. Once on campus for their first semester, freshmen are required to take a “University Success” course for credit. The course includes content about a variety of topics to give students tools they can use for lecture classes, research projects, library use, service-learning opportunities and leadership development.

The default-prevention counselor in the Jackson State financial-aid office often makes presentations in the University Success classes, and he uses USA Funds Life Skills^® to teach students how to find sources of financial aid, work smart in college, and spend money wisely while living like a student. Moncure says the counselor uses Module 1, “Get a Grip on Your Finances — Smart Spending for Students,” Module 2, “Seek Out Financial Aid — Funding Resources and Financial Obligations,” and Module 3, “Work Hard but Smart — How to Be Successful in School and Graduate on Time.

USA Funds Life Skills is a flexible financial-literacy program that helps postsecondary institutions teach their students to manage their time and money wisely while they are on campus and after graduation.

Moncure, who as a member of USA Funds’ Default-Prevention Council assisted in the development of USA Funds Life Skills, says she likes the fact that the program helps the schools work with students.

“With USA Funds Life Skills, we make sure the students have something comprehensive that can be presented in a short period of time and really can help lower student-loan default rates,” she says. “We can integrate it with the other activities we have on campus.”

The USA Funds Default-Prevention Council is a group of financial-aid professionals devoted to developing debt-management initiatives to help schools lower student-loan default rates. Moncure, who has served on the council since its inception in 2000, says group members give USA Funds ideas about what products and services members would like to see designed for students, parents and schools.

“USA Funds really listens to what we have to say,” she says. “That’s how USA Funds Life Skills evolved.”