Seminar focuses on money management for students

By Melissa Smith/reporter

Heart-shaped box of chocolates, a dozen red roses, candlelit dinners and … financial planning?

This Valentine’s Day, SE Campus will host Love Your Money, a series of seminars and workshops focusing on money management issues affecting TCC students, from 10 a.m.-2:15 p.m. in the North Ballroom.

“It’s not that we are worshipping our money, but when you love someone, you make a commitment and you respect and value that person,” said SE student activities director Doug Peak. “And that is the point we are trying to make.”

Love Your Money is the kickoff event for Extreme Money Management, a campuswide student financial empowerment initiative.

Besides learning financial literacy basics, students will also learn about the “visible and invisible” costs of attending college, the role money management plays in financial aid and practical ways to apply the concepts of money management in their own lives, said Jacquelyn Warmsley, SE Achieving the Dream coordinator.

At the luncheon address, keynote speaker Ornella Grosz, financial expert and author of Moneylicious: A Financial Clue for Generation Y, will discuss the unique financial challenges facing college students.

The goal of the Love Your Money event is for students to become “more empowered to manage financial decisions,” Warmsley said.

Citing money problems as one of the biggest obstacles to student academic success, Warmsley, an associate professor of reading, said financial literacy is almost as important as actual literacy.

“Students are constantly weighing short- and long-term risks [of financial decisions]. If you have a $600 cell phone but can’t pay the monthly service for it, this could be a case of money mismanagement,” she said. “But you don’t know what you don’t know. This is an opportunity to fill that gap.”

The Extreme Money Management initiative represents perspectives from various campus areas: student academic success, business services and student accounts, student development services, financial aid services and Achieving the Dream.

Registration for the event is not required. However, registering either before or on-site will allow students who attend to receive continuing education credit. The event is open to all TCC students.