College students today face many challenges, not the least of which is how to pay for their education and everyday living expenses if they're not living with their parents.
Many area schools realize that and are stepping up to help college students become more financially literate.
The University of North Texas Student Money Management Center will expand its services with the launch of the Student-to-Student Financial Success Project on Tuesday.
It will feature student mentors helping their peers work toward financial literacy.
The program is structured around the acronym P.E.E.R., which stands for planning, educating, engaging and reviewing.
The student team will conduct individual counseling sessions, workshops, presentations, and training sessions. The project also will have a significant online component.
"We are student-centered and student-driven," said Kimberly Goldsmith, student coordinator for the project and a senior in financial services. "We feel that some students may learn better from another student who is actually going through a similar situation, or who has recently gone through similar circumstances."
The services will be available to all students but are targeted to those from low- to moderate-income families, first-generation college students and students from groups that are traditionally underrepresented in undergraduate and graduate education.
UNT is also trying to make students more financially literate before they enter college by helping their teachers integrate economic literacy and personal finance concepts into their lesson plans through its Center for Economic Education.
"One of the things that we have found is that the population has very little background in basic economics and personal finance," said Steven L. Cobb, center director and chairman of the economics department. "The earlier that we start teaching economics, the earlier students begin to understand these concepts and the better the chance that they will be good consumers."
Other schools are also active in offering personal finance courses.
The University of Texas at Arlington offers a course that covers "a diverse and practical range of topics which the average individual will be concerned with in making financial decisions during a lifetime."
That includes personal budgeting, banking relationships, life and casualty insurance, taxes, investments and estate planning.
Southern Methodist University's Cox School of Business has a personal finance class offered primarily to students in the newly established business minor program, which is aimed at non-business students.
"Personal finance is on the edge of a more vocational topic, but I think that is less so today than it was a few years ago," said Bob Puelz, the SMU insurance professor who teaches the class. "There are a bunch of financial institutions that have geared up for wealth management practices, and personal finance and its elements have the chance to be an important niche."
All this is good news.
Given the prevalence of student loans and the financial pressures many college students face, we need to give them as firm a foundation as possible so they will start their careers on a solid financial footing.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Download the American presidents and first ladies pictures for only $2.95. You will be able to download all the 42 presidents' pictures from George Washington to the current president and the 43 first ladies' pictures from Abigail Washington to the current first lady in large size all at once in just one download.
DOWNLOAD NOW
