Kent State’s Ashtabula campus will now offer CashCourse, which promotes lifelong financial literacy online.

CashCourse covers topics such as buying technology, healthy and affordable food, scholarships, loans and budgeting. The National Endowment for Financial Education awarded the Ashtabula campus with a $500 grant to start the course.

“The more we can teach students how to use their financial aid, the more students that will graduate financially stable,” said Danielle Weiser-Cline, special assistant in the Office of Academic Services at Kent State’s Ashtabula campus.

The university and the Kent State Alumni Association teamed up with NEFE, a private, nonprofit foundation dedicated to providing people with the financial resources needed to make practical decisions. All of its resources are free.  

The course will consist of a series of workshops hosted at the Ashtabula campus to further introduce students to the idea of CashCourse. The first workshop is scheduled for Feb. 5.

Cline said a lot of students are financially stressed. She feels the course can help relieve their stress.

“I consider myself financially stressed every single day,” junior conflict management major Samantha Clarke said.

Kent State Ashtabula launched the course last fall for students on academic probation or semester warning to teach them how to properly manage their financial aid. Students enrolled in Kent State’s introductory class, called the first-year experience course, were also introduced to CashCourse.

“When the time comes to pay my tuition is when I am the most stressed,” sophomore fine arts major Avin Hannahsmith said.

The CashCourse website was difficult to navigate for some students seeking the program’s resources. Cline, with the help of Amy Thomas, assistant professor in the School of Library Science, created an easier model through LibGuides. LibGuides is a content management system used by Kent State’s library.

“I hope we have a lot of students utilize it,” Cline said.

Kristin Olafsdottir, manager of student accounts in the Bursar’s office, is the administrator of the site. She says this involves giving faculty and staff access to the resources and helping market it to the university community.

“Ashtabula is using the recourse exactly the way we hoped for, to provide students with the tools necessary to improve their financial well being and make more informed decisions about issues affecting them now and in their future,” Olafsdottir said.

Contact Breyanna Tripp at [email protected].