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| Community Budget Issue Requests - Tracking Id #2991 |
| The Freshman Financial Lab |
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| Requester: |
Judith Sorensen |
Organization: |
National Foundation for Debt Management |
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| Project Title: |
The Freshman Financial Lab |
Date Submitted |
1/13/2006 4:25:17 PM |
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| Sponsors: |
Posey |
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| Statewide Interest: |
| The Freshman Financial Lab will provide incoming college freshmen with an interactive web based financial education course that will assist them to manage their money and debts, as well as the appropriate use of consumer credit during college, thereby reducing the likelihood that they will incur unnecessary consumer debts and have to withdraw from school, a major issue among Florida's colleges and universities. |
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| Recipient: |
National Foundation for Debt Management |
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Contact: |
Judith Sorensen |
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14100 58th St. North |
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Contact Phone: |
(800) 490-3839 |
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Clearwater 33760 |
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Contact email: |
jsorensen@nfdm.org |
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| Counties: |
Brevard |
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| Gov't Entity: |
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Private Organization (Profit/Not for Profit): |
Yes |
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| Project Description: |
| The Freshman Financial Lab is an interactive, multi-media educational program developed by a partnership between the National Foundation for Debt Management, a leading consumer debt counseling agency and 2020 Advisors, LLC, which has provided general financial counseling to over one-million American consumers via phone and internet. The Freshman Financial Lab program is targeted at bringing a solution to one of the most pervasive conditions in Florida's colleges and universities today. That condition is students who get into financial difficulty during school and have to ultimately drop out of school. The Freshman Financial Lab provides incoming freshmen with information and skills necessary to prevent the onset of financial difficulties.. The Freshman Financial Lab involves the completion of a 12 chapter online financial educational program, that will provide the incoming college freshman with the information they need to effectively manage their money and debt load, as well as the appropriate and inappropriate uses of credit cards during their college years. Successful completion of the program, as evidenced by a passing grade on the chapter tests and final exam, is evidence that the incoming freshman has mastered all of the program contents and that permanent behavior change related to management of their money and debts will occur, both during and after their college years. The pilot program for which this funding would be utilized will make The Freshman Financial Lab Program available to 4,000 incoming freshmen in the Summer, 2006 semester, at selected Florida colleges. |
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| Is this a project related to a federal or state declared disaster? |
No |
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| Measurable Outcome Anticipated: |
| A passing grade on The Freshman Financial Lab chapter tests and final exam, which will be evidence that the freshman student has mastered the material in the program so that permanent change related to their management of money and debts during and after college will occur. |
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| Amount requested from the State for this project this year: |
$250,000 |
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| Total cost of the project: |
$200,000 |
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| Request has been made to fund: |
Operations |
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| What type of match exists for this project? |
None |
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Cash Amount |
$ |
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| Was this project previously funded by the state? |
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No |
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| Is future-year funding likely to be requested? |
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No |
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| Was this project included in an Agency's Budget Request? |
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No |
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| Was this project included in the Governor's Recommended Budget? |
No |
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| Is there a documented need for this project? |
Yes |
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Documentation: |
In 2005, the average college graduate carried $4,300 in outstanding consumer debt at graduation |
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| Was this project request heard before a publicly noticed meeting of a body of elected officials (municipal, county, or state)? |
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No |
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| Is this a water project as described in Section 403.885, Laws of Florida? |
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No |
