As 2019 comes to an end, we want to thank you for making this year CashCourse’s best yet! We could not have continued the mission of ensuring that students are able to access to financial education resources without you. We applaud your time, effort and passion for empowering students to reach their goals. It has been an honor to support you throughout 2019 and we are eager to see what we will accomplish together in 2020. We would like to share some highlights from the past year:
Beginning in early 2019, we started recognizing schools with the most web engagement on CashCourse each month. To objectively figure out schools’ web engagement activities, we use a formula that considers what percent of the school uses CashCourse and the amount of time students spend on CashCourse.
In February, we awarded six educators with sponsorships to complete the Accredited Financial Counselor certification through the Association for Financial Counseling and Planning Education (AFCPE). The certification provides practitioners with the background, knowledge and confidence to provide financial education to students.
Sharing information and resources is at the core of CashCourse. We wanted to create a space that would amplify voices and encourage information sharing. In the spring, we launched a new site that holds information for schools interested in partnering or learning more about CashCourse. You can find news posts, success stories and financial educator of the year highlights. If you are curious about whether your school uses CashCourse—you can find that here too.
Not only do we want to ensure that we are providing resources to educators, we want to celebrate those educators who are setting an example on how to encourage innovative financial education programming at their schools. This June, we announced Taylor Sminchak of the University of Akron as our 2019 Financial Educator of the Year. Read more about the creative and ambitious financial education programming Sminchak is leading on campus. We also named Kathy Czech as an honorable mention for the award.
Beyond being an information resource, we value sponsoring events that bring educators together to learn, grow and connect. In July, CashCourse was a platinum sponsor for the Higher Education Financial Wellness (HEFW) Summit in Bloomington, Indiana. At the event, we were honored to have the opportunity to host a session on evaluating financial education programming, training on CashCourse and a dinner to celebrate our partners.
We understand that our educators and partners take on a lot—and we don’t want you to carry the burden alone, which is the inspiration behind our Reimbursement Program for Incentives. Through this program we funded more than $20,000 toward campus financial education initiatives in 2019. We are also invested in our educators’ own professional goals, and through our Reimbursement Program for Continuing Education we supported, six individuals’ aspiration to receive a certification in financial education. We also sponsored six people to attend either the HEFW Conference or the AFCPE Conference.
As we finish strong in 2019, we have enrolled 45 new schools and are inspired by the nearly 1,200 institutions that offer CashCourse to students (and counting)! As educators you give so much to your students to share the confidence that comes with financial education, and we are constantly inspired by you. Thank you for an amazing 2019!