This organization wants to bridge Maryland’s financial education gap

Maryland already has infrastructure and organizations dedicated to providing both adults and school-aged children with financial literacy education. But considering Maryland college students are some of the most debt-ridden in the country, it struck Tisa Silver Canady as strange that there were no comprehensive financial literacy programs for those students. 

That’s why the financial wellness advocate is launching the Maryland Center for Collegiate Financial Wellness, an independent nonprofit that will seek to provide financial education resources, programs and outreach to the state’s college students and alumni. The program launched with a symposium on Tuesday morning that brought together administrators and staff from institutions of higher education from across the state to discuss how to improve students’ financial wellness. 

“Two questions have been kind of on my mind as we begin to pursue this work more deeply. The first is, how can we work to support informed decision-making during the college and career school financing decision, as well as student loan repayment? The second is about working to support financial wellness as an essential ingredient within campus-based student success initiatives?” Canady said at the symposium. “Our answer is to harness the power of our network as well as our existing resources.”  

The idea for the nonprofit came out of research Canady conducted on financial education among college students, commissioned by the Woodside Foundation. 

The study, called Campus-Based Financial Education: A Survey of Postsecondary Institutions, looked into the content of financial education materials provided to students at Maryland’s colleges, the personnel available to help students navigate their finances and any external service providers being brough on to provide financial literacy training.  

Among the key findings of the 2019 study was the fact that only a handful of public Maryland colleges provided direct contact information for students to reach a financial education staff member, as did one private institution out of twelve private Maryland colleges. No community colleges did, though the Price George’s Community College provided information about its on-campus Financial Empowerment Center.  

While most schools provided some financial literacy resources on their websites, they varied by amount and scope of information provided. And for most, financial literacy education was not mandatory, but voluntary. 

MCCFW plans to provide a variety of programming to help students address their financial needs, such as offering group student loan coaching. Some colleges in Maryland — but not all — already offer student loan coaching sessions, which walk students through the options they have for repaying loans, Canady said. 

“There’s so great of a demand that I think there’s an opportunity for people to complete the journey together,” she said. Students will work in cohorts with others in their graduating class.  

Another major part of MCCFW’s work will focus on simply making sure students are aware of resources that already exist, but that they may not be aware of. For example, Maryland students can receive over a significant sums of loan relief through the Maryland Student Loan Debt Relief Tax Credit — the application for which is currently open. But not enough students and alumni know about the option, Canady said. 

MCCFW plans to reach students both through their schools directly, as well as through social media. 

The symposium featured speakers including Jay Perman, the chancellor of the University System of Maryland; Robin McKinney co-founder and CEO of the CASH Campaign of Maryland; Julie Weaver, executive director of the Maryland Council on Economic Education; state Sen. Katherine Klausmeier and Del. Dana Stein, who co-chair the Maryland Financial Education and Capability Commission; students who have been impacted by financial education offerings at their schools; and representatives from some of Maryland’s institutions of higher education. 

The virtual event culminated in breakout sessions where participants brainstormed ideas of how to improve collegiate financial wellness. 

The main themes that Canady saw emerge across the rooms were the need to listen students’ needs, and to increase awareness of who is doing this work in Maryland’s campus communities. 

“Sometimes there are two or three people on this campus doing this work but they’re unaware of the other people,” she said. “So, really working together … to find out who else is involved in this work and bring them aboard.” 

For its inaugural year, MCCFW will be funded by the CASH Campaign of Maryland; Canady is currently looking for physical location to house the center.