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TG Updates
TG hosts Financial Literacy Counseling Symposium
On Friday, June 27, TG brought together financial literacy experts and financial aid administrators in a unique one-day seminar — the 2008 TG Financial Literacy Counseling Symposium. Held in the Dallas area, the Symposium offered a forum where administrators, faculty members, and other professionals could discuss techniques for helping students manage their finances more responsibly.
Focused discussion and interactive format
Over the last decade, student debt levels have doubled, and tuition rates have risen dramatically. Many financial aid administrators want to equip students with a basic understanding of financial concepts and skills — tools for surviving in today's economically-challenging times. Some schools have created financial literacy training programs; many more are looking for the best ways to design such a program.
TG's Symposium featured ideas for spearheading a financial literacy initiative and offered examples of successful efforts. Speakers included Danielle Champagne, assistant director of the Student Money Management Center at the University of North Texas, and Dr. Dottie Durband, director of the Red to Black™ program and associate professor of personal financial planning at Texas Tech University.
After a presentation on these two programs, participants broke out into smaller groups where they asked questions and shared ideas on the development of programs at their own schools.
According to Mike Nowlin, TG product manager, the Symposium provided a unique opportunity for financial aid professionals. "The focused dialogue and small size of the discussion groups allowed for a more interactive format," he said. "Attendees really felt they could get their questions answered and go back to their home schools with fresh, innovative ideas."
John Zanot, TG vice president for marketing and product management, agreed. "With mounting student debt and current economic conditions, it's more important than ever for students to have good financial literacy skills," said John. "This Symposium generated significant discussion on how to provide effective financial literacy training, and we look forward to further dialogue."
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TG's Positive+Balance™ overview video available online
Each year, a growing number of students graduate with large levels of debt. Many college campuses now provide financial literacy seminars to teach their students critical skills to help them manage their debt burden and make wise decisions about their personal finances.
TG offers Positive+Balance™ to help schools provide important financial literacy training to students. Positive+Balance consists of training sessions on a variety of financial literacy topics. Popular session topics include money management, budgeting and saving, credit cards and credit reports, and identity theft.
New video
To learn more about the program and how it works, visit TG Online at www.tgslc.org/positivebalance.
In addition to a list of all the available courses and details on how to enroll, the site now features an overview video. View the short video at www.tgslc.org/positivebalance/index.cfm to learn how Positive+Balance can help you and your students by providing important financial literacy training.
Contact us
To learn more about Positive+Balance, you can speak with your TG account executive at (800) 252-9743. Or you can direct questions to Rett Anderton or Joe Braxton, TG's default aversion consultants. Rett Anderton may be reached at (800) 252-9743, ext. 4765, or by sending an e-mail message to rett.anderton@tgslc.org. Joe Braxton may be reached at (800) 252-9743, ext. 4696, or by sending an e-mail message to joe.braxton@tgslc.org.
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With a grant from TG, Ursuline College offers science help to high school seniors
The 21st century will be much like the 20th in one important regard — the need for new and better technologies. Cultivating food to feed the world, engineering alternatives to carbon-emitting fossil fuels, and staying competitive in a rapidly-developing business world are all undertakings that require an educated workforce, one with a sophisticated understanding of science and technology.
Colleges and universities recognize the need for offering students a strong foundation in the sciences. Ursuline College, a 4-year private college based outside of Cleveland, has designed a unique program for helping high school seniors prepare for college, and particularly for science coursework. Called Science FIRST (Focusing Interest in Real-life Science and Technology), the program helps high school seniors, especially first-generation students, make a smooth transition to a college science curriculum.
The project includes an intensive two-week course, Current Topics in Science: A Global Perspective, taught on the Ursuline College campus, coupled with a distance-learning component. Participants will explore the world's energy options, global water and air quality, as well as global perspectives on infectious disease. The program also helps students apply to college and provides mentoring throughout their freshman year.
Upon successful course completion, participants receive college credit for their work and a tuition scholarship toward the college or university of their choice. TG supports the initiative with a grant from its Public Benefit Grant Program.
Building for the future
First-generation students who come from a lower socio-economic background are a prime focus for the program. These students can experience a kind of "culture shock" when they take college-level classes. To create a supportive environment before college, administrators for the Science FIRST program have created partnerships with local high schools.
"We worked hard to develop relationships with guidance counselors and science and math teachers from a variety of schools, with a focus on the Cleveland Metropolitan School District and inner-ring suburbs," said program administrator Christine DeVinne. "We discovered that the key to recruiting students is a solid — and extensive — network of first-person communication. Our recruiter specialist has been at the center of this network and established strong connections that we plan to build on for future years."
Administrators for Science FIRST also developed a hands-on, "technology-enriched" course. Students discuss topics with guest speakers, complete readings and case studies, and even do some computer modeling.
"Over the course of the two-week summer session, they will practice a variety of lab techniques and expand their creative thinking skills," said Christine.
Benefits for all
Mentoring is a central part of the Science FIRST program. Participants are paired with college students from Ursuline, who offer information on the practical, financial, and motivational aspects of higher education. The goal is to guide the mentee from being a passive receiver in the mentoring relationship to an active participant. A Web-based chat room will be available for students to share their experiences with mentors and with each other.
Throughout the year, participants will be asked to keep a "reflection guide" so that they can analyze the strengths and challenges of their mentoring relationship. The guide will also be completed by the project director and reviewed as a regular part of the mentoring process.
Mentoring offers a diverse set of benefits for participants, according to Christine. "Because the program gives us the chance to know the students individually, we can help them plan for what will be their best possible educational future," she said. "The curriculum will develop not just their academic skills but all the skills that they will need for their careers: leadership, original thinking, communication, personal interaction and confidence. Setting all this in the global context enables us to envision growth for these students and for their families."
About TG's Public Benefit Grant Program
To receive funds, organizations are required to submit proposals that address the issue of access to postsecondary education for low- to moderate-income students.
To learn more
If you'd like to learn more about TG's Public Benefit Grant Program, you'll find a description of its purpose and process on TG Online at www.tgslc.org/publicbenefit/index.cfm.
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TG and Mapping Your Future® announce updates to system
Mapping Your Future (MYF) recently made changes to its Online Student Loan Counseling system in order to better meet the needs of participating schools and students.
TEACH Grant counseling
MYF introduced TEACH (Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education) Grant counseling on June 30. The TEACH Grant counseling session provides information about the terms and conditions of a TEACH Grant agreement to serve, as well as the rights and responsibilities that apply if a grant is converted to a Federal Direct Unsubsidized Stafford Loan. Regulations require TEACH Grant applicants to complete an initial counseling session prior to receiving the first disbursement of the grant, and subsequent counseling prior to the first disbursement of a TEACH Grant in a subsequent award year (see 34 CFR 686.32). MYF's counseling session will serve both purposes.
Enhanced average indebtedness customization
On July 1, MYF released its enhanced indebtedness customization option for schools using Online Student Loan Counseling. This option allows a school to provide Stafford loan borrowers who have also borrowed a Grad PLUS loan with an average loan figure per federal loan type, instead of the current process that allows it to enter one average loan figure per counseling session. The school then will choose to display average loan information for students within the federal loan counseling sessions, giving students a total debt picture.
More information
If you have questions about these updates and changes, contact MYF at feedback@mappingyourfuture.org.
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