By GRACE GILES/Contributor
For many students, the biggest challenge in college is not the workload but financial issues. According to Ellucian, 59% of college students conside dropping out and 19% drop out due to financial struggles.
Seventy-six percent students wish they had more help preparing for their financial future, according to a Hartford Financial Services Group study. Meanwhile, only 24% feel adequately prepared for their financial future. While statistics like this can be alarming, University of Texas at Tyler students have the opportunity to learn more about financial literacy.
FINANCIAL LITERACY COURSE
In the summer of 2024, Susan Doty, executive director of the Center for Economic Education and Financial Literacy, received a $100,000 grant from the WoodNext Foundation. The WoodNext Foundation was started by two Texas residents, Susan and Anthony Wood. Anthony Wood is CEO of the TV streaming network, Roku.
The grant consists of three phases:
- Phase 1: Undergraduate courses focused on financial literacy
- Phase 2: Financial education for people in the workforce
- Phase 3: Community outreach through events
Doty created a three-part economics course covering personal finance, building financial resilience, and a fieldwork class. Each course takes seven weeks. At the end of these three courses, students receive certification as a Financial First Responder.
According to Doty, the opportunity to learn about financial wellness is life-changing.
“Do you want a course that will change your life’s financial trajectory for you and your family for generations? This is the course,” Doty said when pitching this course.
Doty developed this course based on her commitment to teaching financial wellness. Throughout her time teaching financial education, she has seen how finances impact everyone.
“The teachers would come up to me after these workshops, and they would hug me, and say, ‘My students needed this, but I needed this, my family needed this,’ and I saw just that it was life-changing,” Doty said.
Doty hopes that this course will become a requirement because of its importance.
CENTER FOR FINANCIAL WELLNESS
UT Tyler’s Center for Student Financial Wellness provides students with resources to learn about financial wellness and to speak with a financial adviser.
“The Center for Student Financial Wellness is committed to student success by providing students with financial literacy and financial wellness services and resources to assist them in developing personal finance and healthy financial habits,” says its mission statement.
The center offers electronic services, such as scholarship searches, applications for benefits, food assistance programs, and articles and blog posts about personal finance. The center also participates in social outreach events.
Many students face financial stress, which can result in feeling isolated.
“It’s just difficult to navigate this on your own for the first time when you feel like there’s no one there to help you,” Bruce Bettinger, the Center for Student Financial Wellness coordinator, said.
The center offers one-on-one financial advising for those with questions or who need help. Students can schedule advising through the center’s website.
Bettinger emphasized the importance of asking for help.
“If you do not know how to do anything with money and outside of money, if you do not know how to do anything, seek help from someone else,” Bettinger said,
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