In the cards, literally. As in credit cards.
Financial troubles are the biggest cause of student drop-out rates, said Theodore Daniels, president of the Society for Financial Education and Professional Development. And the two biggest causes of financial trouble for college students are defaulting on student loan payments and racking up too much on plastic, he added.
Forty-five percent of all college students are in debt, with an average debt load of more than $3,000; by graduation, many college students average more than $20,000 in debt, according to Department of the Treasury statistics.
|
|
A bad credit report can follow a person right off campus and haunt them for years to come, even hurting their chances of being hired, Daniels said.
Daniels drove that message home to Virginia State University students as part of their freshman orientation yesterday.
He was joined by Abernathy and Tony T. Brown, director of the Treasury's Community Development Financial Institutions fund. The Treasury officials awarded the society an honorary certificate of recognition for teaching financial education to students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
The society's efforts to better the lives of minorities hit home, said Brown. He grew up in the projects, he said, raised by his grandmother. From that savvy lady, who fixed up old homes, moved in, then later resold them and "moved up," he learned a powerful lesson, Brown said.
"That's where I found the value of community development. She had no desire to get out of the 'hood. She wanted to stay and make it better," Brown added.
The award having been presented, Daniels got serious, very serious.
For the next few minutes, his audience would learn the power and pitfalls of plastic money.
And if they listened well, they just might go on to graduate, stay out of debt, and turn that scary bankruptcy statistic on its ear.
* Cliff Davis may be reached at 732-3456, ext. 254.
