Finances can be a major point of stress for college students.
Coming to college requires students to budget for themselves and the personal accounting can feel daunting for some.
This week marks the Second Annual Financial Literacy Week, hosted by the Student Success Center (SSC) at USC. The SSC prepares students for college life by providing services to students — everything from tutoring to academic recovery — but most importantly for this week, financial literacy.
In fact, the SSC has its own resource that deals with the topic specifically: the Financial Literacy program.
As an offshoot of the SSC, the Financial Literacy program focuses on helping students to better understand financial concepts and services offered by USC so they can “make informed choices and take action to improve their present and long-term financial well-being,” according to their website.
This week of events aims to help students grow more accustomed to dealing with their own finances and avoid the uncomfortable stress that sometimes accompanies money while working hand in hand with the Financial Literacy Program.
The events run from April 13 through April 16, and offer a wide spectrum of learning environments for students to engage the different aspects of money management through partnerships with various office across campus.
The first event, “Protect Yourself from Identity Theft,” is sponsored by the Office of Crime Prevention and Community Relations, Tuesday’s event, “$tart $mart: Learning how to Negotiate a Salary and Equal Pay Day,” is sponsored by USC’s Career Center and “You can afford to Study Abroad” on Thursday is sponsored by the Study Abroad office.
All the events offered throughout the week are free and open to students.
On top of the week of learning about financial literacy, SSC also provides one-on-one consultations to students on a regular basis through their Financial Literacy program. The consultations deal with topics such as money management, building and managing credit, debit management, financial planning for study abroad, student loan and repayment education and moving off-campus issues.