There”s more to money management than eating ramen for every meal.
With the Better Education About Money for Students (BEAMS) program, started by the Financial Aid office last fall, Dan Davenport said he”s aiming to teach students more about financial responsibility.
Davenport said BEAMS focuses on three areas: financial literacy, loan debt management and loan repayment.
Since over 65 percent of University of Idaho students borrow money, Davenport said it just made sense to start a program like this. He said many other institutions have comparable programs, so he felt it was time for UI to begin developing its own service to address some of the challenges students face in their education and borrowing money.
BEAMS Manager Christiane Williamson said BEAMS aims to promote financial education through workshops and presentations. Williamson said students, faculty and departments can request presentations on a variety of financial topics from a BEAMS lecturer.
“That would be me, at this point,” Williams said.
Williamson said the program also offers one-on-one coaching so that students who have specific questions can come in and discuss their situation.
Davenport said to create the program, they examined the challenges students and their families face while financing college, and the amount of loan debt students incurred while in college.
He also said the program isn”t just for students in financial trouble, but for all students who hope to keep financial problems from occurring in the first place.
Davenport said the university is also using an online tool called iGrad which will provide information for students. Davenport said BEAMS is working to encourage students to set up a profile on the website.
“I think one of the keys is for students to start looking at iGrad and this process now, rather than waiting until they get in trouble financially,” Davenport said.
Davenport said he hopes that by participating in the program, students can avoid getting into common financial troubles like defaulting on loans or running out of money and not being able to continue their education.
Leslie Hammes, associate director of Student Financial Aid said that the Financial Aid office has always had councilors who work with students on repayment options as they get closer to graduating, but this program adds additional financial counseling throughout college and planning for continuing repayments after graduation.
“We thought it was really important to also have a middle piece between where they start and do loan entrance counseling and where they graduate and do loan exit counseling where we talk to them about, “OK, this is what you need to cover while you”re here,” and “How much of what we offered you do you need to accept,”” Hammes said.
Williamson said iGrad contains a variety of different educational tools and resources that are available to students and alumni. These include articles, videos, calculators and learning modules that cover topics such as banking, credit, debt management and investments. The website also contains an outside scholarship search as well as a job search.
Davenport said he considers one of the most useful features of iGrad to be a calculator students can enter loans into and it will simulate what the repayments would be like.
“So you could take a look and say, “Oh, I”ve already borrowed $10,000, if I borrow another $3,000, what is my payment going to look like, or can I get by with just $2,000?”” Davenport said. “So it will help students really manage their loan debt and know what type of repayment they”re going to have when they get out of school.”
Ryan Locke can be reached at [email protected]