Financial Literacy Program Development at Longwood University

Financial literacy among college students is at concerningly low levels in much of the world. Despite the proven benefits that financial skills have on decision making and long-term planning, there are few faculty-led programs dedicated to improving financial literacy across college campuses. The purpose of this project was to design and pilot a financial literacy program on the campus of Longwood University that allows students free access to information regarding budgets, credit, student loans, and the importance of saving. Initial sessions of these workshops were held, and feedback was received using surveys and focus groups to determine student need for future and permanent session formats and topics. Focus groups also included collaboration with organizations that represent underserved populations to help ensure that students who have a higher likelihood of struggling with financial literacy skills find valuable and accessible information. Findings from survey responses and focus group data indicated that students learned the targeted material for their respective sessions. These findings also suggested that slight changes could be made to established workshops to include more examples for participants to see during the workshop. The Qualtrics surveys used to gather information could also be modified to be more user friendly. Overall, feedback suggests that there is sufficient need to grow the program and implement it as a permanent offering within the Office of Financial Aid.