USA Funds Life Skills Gives Art Institute Students Tools for Success

The Art Institute of California–Orange County in Santa Ana, Calif., begins its academic programs with foundation-studies courses that lay the groundwork for student success in their design, media-arts and culinary-arts program. For the last three years, The Art Institute has utilized the USA Funds^® Life Skills^® program to complement the curriculum of some of these courses to focus on school, study and life skills.

USA Funds Life Skills gives students the tools they need to develop good study, time-management and communication skills, says Laura Pinkham, associate dean of student affairs.

New classes start quarterly, and many classes have project-based curricula, she says. “It’s easy for students to get overwhelmed.”

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.

Training ‘a must’
“This is something that’s a must, not a maybe,” Pinkham says. “USA Funds Life Skills is easy to use, it’s fun for the students, and it gives us the flexibility to customize the program and make it unique for our students,” she says. She notes that The Art Institute started using USA Funds Life Skills to help improve student persistence, by giving students the skills they need to stay in school.

The school focuses on Module 3, “Work Hard but Smart — How to Be Successful in School and Graduate on Time.”

“With some of the information — such as time management — the students can begin making changes immediately,” Pinkham says. They also can choose to review some of the resources and tools with counselors in the student-affairs department later in the quarter.

Pinkham estimates that thousands of students have benefited from USA Funds Life Skills since the school began using the program. In the last quarter, the school offered 25 sections of the foundation-studies class, with 20-to-30 students each. The USA Funds Life Skills portion of the class, taught by the department’s two counselors, takes about one and one-half hours.

Course promotes interaction
“The students are very appreciative,” Pinkham says. “Many come in without the pertinent life skills.

“The counselors who teach the material make it interactive and use experiential strategies,” she says. “One of the positive outcomes is that students ask to see counselors one-on-one as a result of seeing us in the classroom.”

The Art Institute of California–Orange County is one of The Art Institutes, with 33 education institutions throughout North America.

The school’s student body comprises students who have just completed high school, those who have transferred from other colleges and universities, and those who are pursuing career changes. The Art Institute offers associate and bachelor’s degrees.

Pinkham says that the counselors use other modules of USA Funds Life Skills, such as Module 1, “Get a Grip on Your Finances — Smart Spending for Students,” when students request help with personal-finance issues.

“Our counseling services are free to students, and we see USA Funds Life Skills as a wonderful complement to our counseling,” Pinkham notes. “It’s a great way to reach a large population of students. The materials are professionally presented, customizable, and there’s a good mix of information and interactivity.”

USA Funds Life Skills materials are available for ordering online through the USA Funds Web site. For more information or to order materials, contact your debt-management consultant.