Champlain students gets some hands-on experience learning about real-life
budgeting at the Credit for Life Workshop, sponsored by People's United Bank

BURLINGTON, Vt. -- Champlain College students had a chance recently to test their budgeting skills for life after graduation through an afternoon of budgeting simulation.

While graduation is still a few years away, more than 100 first-year students took advantage of a Life Experience & Action Dimension (LEAD) program presented with the help of Champlain's Center for Financial Literacy and sponsorship from People's United Bank.

After a short introductory presentation about the Credit for Life program, students were given a monthly budget based on a typical starting salary in their chosen field of study. From there, they moved from booth to booth making decisions about how to spend those funds on subjects such as housing, food, utilities, insurance, saving and entertainment.

To keep things realistic, taxes as well as health and dental insurance were taken out of their budgets and some salaries were decreased somewhat from the national data to reflect the current economic conditions. Every participant was given a padfolio with a calculator, provided by People's United Bank, to help them keep track of their spending.

After making their lifestyle choices, the students then met with a "credit counselor" - a student trained to look over financial budgets, explained Jen Sweeney, director of the LEAD program.

"Students who went over budget were sent back out to the booths to make some more realistic choices and adjustments to their monthly budget before they could leave," she said.

Champlain's innovative LEAD program requires students to attend a range of workshops and educational opportunities connected to practical life skills, from resume workshops to how to buy your first car. It has gained national attention for being in the forefront of helping  students learn about credit, financial literacy, saving for the future and budgeting over the course of their four years at Champlain College.

John Pelletier, director of the Champlain College Center for Financial Literacy, points out that the average college loan debt for a graduating college senior in Vermont back in 2008 was $25,047. He also notes that many students arrive at college with little or no background in financial literacy which can lead to troubling behaviors down the road. "Surveys show that 30 percent of adults have no savings, 58 percent haven't tried to figure out how to save for retirement and a third were 'surprised' by the terms of their mortgages," he noted.

"It's important to our economy and well-being of our country that we begin sending graduates out into the world knowing how to handle their financials so we don't end up in the kind of mess we are currently experiencing," Pelletier added.

The growing series of workshops offered through Champlain's LEAD ranges from understanding employee benefits, goal setting and budgeting, repaying student loans and saving and investment strategies.  For more information about the program, visit www.champlain.edu.

Learn more about the LEAD program:

http://www.champlain.edu/lead-program.html

Learn more about the Center for Financial Literacy :

http://www.champlain.edu/Documents/cfl/CFLAnnualReport.pdf

About Champlain College

Since 1878, Champlain College has provided career-focused education to students from its hilltop campus in Burlington, Vt. Champlain's distinctive educational approach embodies the notion that true learning only occurs when information and experience come together to create knowledge. Champlain offers traditional undergraduate and online undergraduate courses, along with online certificate and degree programs and eight master's degree programs. Champlain offers study abroad programs at its campuses in Montreal, Quebec and Dublin, Ireland. Champlain College is included in the Princeton Review's "The Best 376 Colleges: 2012 Edition." Champlain was named a "Top-Up-and-Coming School" by U.S. News & World Report's America's Best Colleges and is ranked in the top tier of 2012 Regional Colleges in the North. For more information, visit www.champlain.edu.