Savannah State University and Consumer Credit Counseling Service of the Savannah Area, Inc., have partnered to lessen students’ financial strain, while preparing them to be better savers and spenders.  The financial education series “Smart Cents” focuses on real life situations such as shopping for credit, tracking spending, pulling a credit report, and identifying financial goals. Richard Reeve, CCCS’ Director of Financial Education, is teaching the series.

CCCS, in partnership with SSU, was awarded a grant by Chase Card Services, a division of JPMorgan Chase & Co., to help support a financial education series for college freshman in the First Year Experience (FYE) program.

Reeve conducted four one-hour classes for two FYE courses. The classes included topics such as debt, pulling credit reports, creating a budget, how to save for emergencies and other topics related to personal finance.

Prior to teaching each class, Reeve polled the students using interactive clickers to determine what each student knew about the topic.  He then proceeded to teach the topic and at the end of class, asked the same questions to determine the increase in knowledge.  The results were immediate and significant.

The report breaks down many factors and results, with the highlights being:
91% increase in knowledge; 134% increase in written financial goal; 408% increase in pulled credit reports in last 12 months; 123% increase in tracking expenses in the last 12 months; and 57% increase in feeling knowledgeable about money.