USA Funds Life Skills helps students learn to manage time and money

INDIANAPOLIS - USA Funds^®, the nation's leading education loan guarantor, announces the launch of the first online components of its popular financial literacy program for college students, USA Funds Life Skills^®.

The program organizes complex information in clear-cut life lessons that students can complete in approximately 30 minutes. The life lessons help students understand basic strategies for managing their finances and completing their programs of study on time. Topics represented in the life lessons can be grouped into learning paths to provide a customized curriculum for undergraduates, graduate and professional students, or adult learners, or for special student segments, such as freshmen attending orientation, graduating students or married students.

"The online format enhances the interactivity of the program to engage students and hold their attention as they learn valuable personal finance skills," said Denise B. Feser, USA Funds senior vice president, customer relations. "The online delivery also reduces campus staff resources required to facilitate the program and permits schools to deliver the content to students on the students' own time, in a classroom setting or using a combination of both methods."

The program includes pre- and post-lesson quizzes to assess students' gains in knowledge, interactive exercises, real-life scenarios, a glossary of education loan terms and additional resources.

The initial 14 life lessons, now available to a select group of "early adopter" schools, cover the following topics:

• How Will I Pay for My Higher Education?
• How Do I Apply for Financial Aid?
• How Do I Manage My Credit Card Debt?
• What Do Credit Scores Mean to Me?
• What Do Credit Reports Mean to Me?
• How Can I Protect Myself From Identity Theft?
• How Do I Live on a Budget While I'm in School?
• How Do I Achieve My Goals?
• What Do I Need to Know Before I Select a Program of Study?
• How Do I Manage My School Life?
• How Much Income Should I Expect?
• What Do I Need to Know About Repaying My Student Loans?
• What If I Have Trouble Repaying My Student Loans?
• Couple Talk: How Can We Have a Life With So Little Money?

The program will be available to a broader group of postsecondary institutions later this summer, and the complete array of 30 life lessons will be deployed this fall.

More than 500 postsecondary institutions have implemented the original USA Funds Life Skills curriculum since its introduction in 2002.

For additional information about USA Funds Life Skills, visit the following Web address: www.usafunds.org/financial_aid/debt_management/usa_funds_life_skills/index.htm.

Headquartered in Indianapolis, USA Funds is a nonprofit corporation that works to enhance postsecondary education preparedness, access and success by providing and supporting financial and other valued services. For more information about USA Funds, visit www.usafunds.org.

Posted 04/29/09 to www.NASFAA.org. Posting of press releases is done as a service to Members and does not imply endorsement or support by NASFAA. NASFAA does not review this information for content or accuracy.