Monroe Community College students can get free financial coaching starting this fall.
The Money Smart Financial Coaching Program is funded by JP Morgan and the National Council for Workforce Education.
“We hope that by the students that we serve, that we can assist them in understanding how to save money, how to reduce debt, how to manage credit cards, how to understand what a credit score is, those sorts of things, the foundational tools,” said Christal Albrecht, program director at the National Council for Workforce Education.
Sylvia Mendez is the assistant director of financial aid. She says one of the goals is to increase graduation rates by helping students out of financial insecurity.
“What we see is that our students are hungry, and that there is food insecurities, and there's housing insecurity with our students,” Mendez said. “I deal with students on a one-on-one basis every day, and students come into my office and they need help.”
Sylvia Mendez, assistant director of financial aid, said between 30 to 40 students will be able to enroll in the coaching program each semester.
MCC will receive $138,000 over three semesters to develop the program starting in July. It’s one of four schools selected for the grant, which is aimed at closing a racial wealth gap.
However, according to a study at Brandeis University, the racial wealth gap in the U.S. has been driven by decades of public policies, like redlining, which had a disproportionate racial impact.
Researchers say it would take eliminating disparities in homeownership, graduation rates, and income through changes in public policy to reduce the long-standing racial wealth gap.
