Champlain College Launches Financial Literacy Center

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Director John Pelletier describes the new Center for Financial LIteracy at Champlain College.

BURLINGTON, VT (12/08/2010)(readMedia)-- A new partnership between several Vermont financial institutions and Champlain College hopes to increase financial literacy in classrooms across Vermont, ensure college students graduate with the skills to make sound decisions about spending, credit and investments, and help adults navigate difficult financial situations like buying a home and saving for retirement.

John Pelletier of Stowe, Director of the Center for Financial Literacy at Champlain College, announced the details of the new center which is designed to promote and develop financial literacy skills in K-12 students, college students, teachers (K-12 and college) and adults. The Center will also advocate for more financial education opportunities at the local, state and national level.

Pelletier, a former chief operating officer and chief legal officer at some of the largest asset management firms in the U. S., says a lack of knowledge about credit, investing and financial planning is at the heart of the recent economic downturn.

"The Great Recession demonstrated that our citizens struggle when making complex financial decisions that are critical to their well being. Some of our economic problems were created by bad actors, focused on personal gain, but so many others were created by good people making poorly informed personal financial decisions," he noted.

The Center for Financial Literacy at Champlain College has already raised $188,500 to tackle the problem using a multi-pronged educational approach. Much of the financial support has come from many of Vermont's major financial industry institutions, Pelletier explained.

Initially, the Center for Financial Literacy's three programs will address the growing needs for financial education and increased literacy for K-12 students , college students, and adults in Vermont.

• The Vermont Financial Literacy Summit, sponsored by TD Bank, National Life Group and the National Life Group Foundation. A conference in March 2011 to raise the awareness in the public policy arena about the need for increasing personal financial education in grades K-12, at the collegiate level and for adults on a local, state and national level.

• The Vermont Teachers Financial Literacy Summer Institute, sponsored by Merchants Bank and the Merchants Bank Foundation. A three-year summer program beginning in 2011 to provide graduate-level training for more than 100 Vermont high school and middle school educators at a five-day training course in understanding and teaching financial literacy.

• What's My Score sponsored by People's United Bank. A program aimed at helping Champlain College seniors and juniors access and understand their credit scores and create a peer-to-peer credit and financial counseling network in conjunction with Champlain Housing Trust and Champlain College's Life Experience & Action Dimension (LEAD) curriculum.

The operation of the Center's is funded in part by the Founding Sponsors, including Champlain Investment Partners LLC, Merchants Bank/Merchants Bank Foundation (Grant Sponsor), National Life Group/National Life Group Foundation (Grant Sponsor), New England Federal Credit Union, Northfield Saving Bank, John & Leigh Pelletier, People's United Bank (Grant Sponsor), State Street and TD Bank/TD Foundation (Grant Sponsor)

An Advisory Board for the Center will include representatives from leading banks, other financial industry firms, secondary and higher education, and non-profit organizations, Pelletier added.

The Center is a perfect fit with Champlain College's LEAD program which provides its students with a four-year series of programs and experiences designed to develop practical skills that will be useful throughout their lives, according to Champlain President David F. Finney. The life-skills components of a Champlain College education include community service, developing personal and professional relationships, financial literacy training and career management.

"For too many college students across the country, the only financial counseling they receive is at the exit interview before they graduate reminding them to repay their loans. We believe these programs will help address those issues in a proactive and productive way," Finney said.

"The teaching of personal finance is often an afterthought in schools because it is not a subject tested under the No Child Left Behind law. However, according to Jump$tart USA -- a Washington D.C.-based coalition of organizations interested in advancing financial literacy among students in pre-kindergarten through college -- high school seniors on average answered only 48 percent of personal finance questions correctly. Most high school and middle school students in Vermont are not financially literate and are rarely being taught key personal finance topics in the classroom. Few Vermont colleges – public or private – offer a personal finance elective and it is rare that a college requires personal finance course as a core requirement. We hope the work of the Center for Financial Literacy at Champlain College will help change all that," Pelletier explained.

For more information about the Center for Financial Literacy at Champlain College, visit http://www.champlain.edu/CFL.html

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 study abroad programs in Montreal, Quebec and Dublin, Ireland. The College was named a "Top-Up-and-Coming School" by U.S. News & World Report's America's Best Colleges. It is also ranked in the top tier of 2011 Regional Colleges in the North by U.S. News & World Report. To learn more about Champlain College, visitwww.champlain.edu.