NASPA Student Financial Wellness Conference
Workshop Financial Wellness Student Affairs Partnering with Academic Affairs Undergraduate
June 29 - July 1, 2020 Virtual
Presented By
NASPA presents an impactful Conference to address the complexities of college students’ financial wellness. Participants will learn effective strategies for helping students improve their fiscal health during college and remain financially stable after graduation.
Financial Wellness has a Major Impact on Student Success
Did you know that in 2017, researchers at The Ohio State University found that a staggering 70% of college students are stressed about finances? This stress has serious implications for student success.
Don't Worry; We're Here to Help
NASPA is once again offering this Conference to bring together professionals from all divisions of our colleges and universities to explore the ways in which they can bolster the financial wellness of our students. The Conference programs explore evidence-based practices, innovative research, and current trends so you can do just that.
For more information on the 2020 NASPA Virtual Conferences on Student Success in Higher Education, please visit this website.
Learning Outcomes and Themes
Understand the various factors that can impact students’ financial wellness
- What are the various aspects that contribute to collegiate financial wellness (e.g. debt, student loans, budget management)?
- How does financial wellness intersect with other areas of a student’s holistic identity?
- In what ways do students’ values drive their financial decisions?
Identify various programmatic approaches for addressing students’ complex financial issues such as food insecurity, housing insecurity, economic crisis, transportation, child/family care, and financial management
- How can a higher education institution address a breadth of student financial issues?
- What are strategies to help students forecast financial crises and develop plans to proactively address those?
- How can students be better prepared and educated to successfully plan and navigate major life transitions (e.g. living as an independent minor/foster-care to college, college to the workforce)?
- What process or policy adjustments could be made in order to result in improved retention for all, but specifically for low-income students?
Articulate methods for integrating financial support across functional units, including student affairs, financial aid, and academic affairs
- How can departments collaborate across campus and community to identify support both on and off campus?
- What are resources (a) for students seeking financial support across units and (b) for departments to develop lasting relationships with other units?
- In what ways can off-campus resources be integrated into on-campus support mechanisms/processes?
- How can institutions facilitate discussion about institution-wide contributors to financial distress of students, such as account holds from past-due balances, cost of textbooks, increasing tuition, or other institutionally-driven fees and/or the timing of payment deadlines?
Identify solutions for increasing students’ awareness and use of financial wellness programming
- What are innovative strategies to engage ever-increasing student usage of campus-based financial wellness support resources and programs?
- In what ways can peer-to-peer engagement and coaching positively impact student financial wellness?
- With what initiatives (i.e. orientation) can financial wellness topics be integrated to provide overall student understanding and success?
- How can various technological platforms (e.g. social media, online courses, educational apps or gamification) be utilized to increase awareness and use of financial wellness programming and/or to reach target groups of students?
- What online education methods have been used, and how have institutions successfully encouraged use of these resources?
Describe strategies for assessing the influence of financial wellness education on students’ persistence, degree completion and lifelong financial wellness
- What are the primary components and methodologies of a successful assessment plan for a collegiate financial wellness program?
- How can alumni be incorporated into financial wellness initiatives on or off campus?
- Do current research and assessment practices in the field of financial wellness demonstrate short- or long-term positive outcomes for students? For example, how does one’s ability to manage financial stress relate to academic success? How can administrators support academic success for students?
- What should research and assessment look like in this area? What do the surveys and methods already look like and what have we learned? Essentially, how do we know that our financial wellness practices are working?
- What impact does financial wellness have on life after college? Does it affect one’s decision making when it comes to significant life choices, such as purchasing a car or home, deciding when to get married or start a family, making choices about which career to pursue or how to save for retirement, etc.?