Brock Vasconcellos (The Beacon)
By W.C. Lawson, Staff Writer lawson14@up.edu
ASUP President Brock Vasconcellos and Senator Adam Harnden, both seniors, fear many of their fellow graduating classmates are not prepared for postgraduate personal finances. Now, with ASUP's help, students will be offered free advice about their money.
"A lot of people who leave the university upon graduation are not knowledgeable about surviving on their own with their finances," said Harnden.
Starting this semester, the Pamplin School of Business Administration will fund personal finance seminars for all interested students. They will begin after spring break.
Last semester, ASUP passed a resolution written by Harnden and Senator Brooke Murphy proposing personal finance education. Now, University President Fr. Bill Beauchamp has directed Vasconcellos to collaborate with the Pamplin School of Business Administration to structure the workshops.
"Money is crucial," said Vasconcellos. "It's everything, so we think a lot of students will find this beneficial."
Murphy and Harnden said the seminars are open to anyone at the University who hasn't been offered finance classes. They will cover several topics. "We hope students take advantage of this opportunity," Murphy said.
According to ASUP, there will be four seminars and each will last about 45 minutes to an hour. They will cover cash management and budgeting, handling debt and credit cards and credit scores, insurance and investments.
It is unclear who will teach the seminars, though according to Vasconcellos, it will most likely be professors from the business school.
"We will roll out the details on the seminars here in the next month," Vasconcellos said.
ASUP has high hopes for the project and thinks that it will be extremely helpful for students.
"I foresee many juniors and seniors taking the seminars before they go out to the real world," said Harnden.
