Florida College System Foundation Awards Miami Dade College $10,000 Financial Literacy Grant

Miami Dade College received a $10,000 grant from the Florida College System Foundation to conduct a series of financial literacy workshops at the InterAmerican Campus.

The grant aims to teach students how to balance a budget, take out student loans, do personal refinancing, and make smart business decisions.

Miami Dade College was one of ten community colleges that received the grant.

“One of the primary reasons [for the grant] was to equip students and their families with the knowledge and skills to make sound financial decisions, particularly in relation to paying for college,” said Carrie Henderson, Coordinator of the Student Success Division for the Florida College System.  

According to The Project on Student Debt, an initiative of the Institute for College Access & Success, two-thirds of college seniors graduated with loans in 2010, and carried an average of $25,250 in debt. At the same time, students also faced the highest unemployment rate for young college graduates in recent history at 9.1 percent.

Students in professor Elisa Fernandez’s GEB 1011 class at the InterAmerican Campus will be trained in financial literacy by the Center For Financial Training, a national organization that provides financial services education, training and technology to financial service professionals throughout the United States.  

Once trained, the students will organize three workshops, two of which will be offered during the day and one during the evening.

Topics will include: budget management, checking/savings accounts, loan default prevention, credit scores, and FAFSA.

The workshops will be free and open to all MDC students. No dates have been set.

For more information, contact Connie Laguna, the executive director of the center for financial training at Miami Dade College, at 305-237-3051 or claguna@mdc.edu