1. Demonstrated Need:
Narrative
Blackfeet Community College (BCC) is a tribally controlled community college located in Browning, on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Northwest Montana. The reservation encompasses over 2900 square miles (approximately 1.5 million acres), majority of Glacier County and a portion of Pondera County. Bcc provides postsecondary education to tribal members and other populations on the reservation and surrounding area. BCC proposes to sponsor a Financial Literacy program in increase the awareness of financial literacy and to reduce the student loan debt in college students.
Need
Nearly 100% of the students at Blackfeet Community College (BCC) are PELL eligible based on federal guidelines according to data from the financial Aid Office. The student population at BCC has more than doubled in the past four years and the number of PELL eligible students has kept pace with that growth. The need for a Financial Literacy program at BCC is substantiated by the increase in PELL eligible students.
BCC serves a reservation where the Native American per capita income is remarkably lower than the poverty level at $9,751. The Glacier County per capita income is $11,597 and the State income is $17,151. The Native American per capita income in nearly $4,000 less than that of the county and half that of the state. Attaining an education is the only opportunity available to break the cycle of poverty and despair for the Blackfeet. The unemployment rate substantiates the low to non-existent economic standing. The unemployment rate of 78% for Blackfeet families is 7 times higher than the Montana state rate of 11%.
Blackfeet Community College currently does not provide financial literacy to the general BCC student population. Although BCC does not offer student loans we do have a transfer rate of 45% of our students going on the a university, and we are seeing an increase each year of students returning to BCC after a semester or two at a university. These students come back owing PELL and/or are in student loan default. BCC students are not prepared in financial literacy to
understand the financial commitments needed to be a university student. Browning High School seniors are not prepared in financial literacy education to attend college although they have the option to attend a financial literacy workshop while they are in high school. BCC’s Academic Enrichment Services program under Student Services that does provide financial literacy education to a target group of BCC students, designated by their grant, providing several
workshops on Financial Skills for Families, Debt Management and Financial Literacy 101. This will be used to compliment the project by giving high school seniors and the larger BCC student population, along with their families the opportunity to participate in Financial Literacy
education.
Financial Literacy education focusing on high school seniors, entering freshman college students, and transfer students are the most vulnerable as they do not understand the financial
aspects of attending college and the consequences one can incur by dropping out or getting behind on student loans or even budgeting for college and living as a college student on a limited income. Financial literacy education is an excellent tool for all college students and their
families even if they don’t plan on transferring as they will learn about financial management that will help them in their everyday lives.
2. Project Design:
Blackfeet Community College (BCC) will provide Financial Literacy Education on campus, targeting 117 new BCC students, 168 returning students, 65 potential graduating BCC students and 70 Browning High School seniors through a series of workshops. Their families will be strongly encouraged to attend the workshops with their students so they will have an
understanding of what the student will go through financially to pursue their higher education. The Financial Literacy Education program will be housed within the Student Success Center as part of the services provided for potential, new and current BCC students. BCC will target high-risk students, low-income, veterans, underrepresented students and the general student
population to provide financial literacy education to address the Montana CACG Goal
“Strengthen Montana’s financial literacy programs in an effort to reduce student loan debt”. BCC will work in collaboration with the Browning High School to target the seniors, Browning Community Development Corporation, who will provide Income Tax Preparation and Native American Development Corporation, who will provide Family Financial Literacy to students, the Student Assistance and Student Assistance Foundation to have students attend Financial Literacy Workshops on either MSU-Bozeman campus or University of Montana campus.
Approximately 30% of college age students who have lived on the reservation all their lives, and leave the community after graduating from high school to attend a Montana university, usually end up returning to Browning after a semester or a year. These students enroll at BCC and either have to pay back their PELL, Title IV funding, or they default on student loans. This puts a major burden on our Financial Aid department as the two employees in that department have to work especially hard to get them into college and get them on a payment plan along with meeting the needs of the rest of the BCC students. According to the Registrar’s Office, BCC averages about 10 students a semester who return home and enroll at BCC with financial aid default.
GOAL: Increase campus-based financial literacy education to 420 new, current, potential college students (high school seniors) and BCC students who will be transferring to a university from 10% to 40%.
Objective 1: Collaborate with Browning Public Schools, Browning Community Development Corporation, Native American Development Corporation and Student Assistance Foundation to provide financial literacy to Browning High School Senior’s and BCC Students and their families.
Objective 2: To engage students and their families, in financial literacy education covering financial management, reducing student debt, financial aid awareness and improve student financial literacy through workshops, incorporating financial literacy into the College Readiness curriculum and New Student Orientation.
BCC will provide the following series of workshops over the year that will assist students and their families in understanding the financial aspects of attending college:
1. PELL and Scholarship workshops will cover the why, what and how of understanding PELL; how to read your award letter; reading your billing statement; budgeting the remaining PELL funds and looking for other sources of financial aid. Workshop will be offered 3 times during the year, targeting 45 students.
2. Budgeting & Debt Management workshops will cover budgeting, debt management, savings plans, obtaining and reading credit reports/scores, financial planning and goal setting while in college and resources. This workshop will be offered 3 times during the year targeting 45 students.
3. Income Tax Preparation workshops will teach students how to prepare Income Taxes and give them the option of volunteering as an Income Tax preparer. Will be offered once targeting, 15 students.
4. Family Financial Planning Workshop will cover financial management for the family. Will be offered once, targeting 15 students.
5. Managing & Reducing Student Loan Debt Workshop will cover the A-Z of Student Loans, from determining the need for a student loan, applying for a loan, loan management, repayment plans for a loan, personal debt and loan forgiveness programs and resources. Workshop will be offered 3 times a year targeting 45 students.
6. Transfer Student & Financing Options workshop will help students submit an application to transfer, find financial aid resources from the college, figuring cost of living, set students up with loan entrance counseling resources, financial management after college and more. Workshop will be offered 3 times a year targeting 45 students.
Each workshop will have a pre and post assessment to measure the financial literacy knowledge of students & their families, indicate their student status and comments. Although each
workshop will be budgeted for 15 student participants per workshop, not including their families, students will not be turned away. Workshops will be offered so students will have the option to take a workshop at a later date should they have other obligations when the first one is offered. Each workshop will be offered three times a year except for the Income Tax Preparation and Family Financial Planning Workshop, which will only be offered once each. If students take the workshops as a series consisting of 4 different financial literacy workshops, there will be 180 students who will complete the series. This does not include the two specialty workshops of Income Tax Preparation and Family Financial Planning. With the two special workshops, a total of 210 participants will have participated in the financial literacy education program.
Five students who are going to be transferring to either MSU-Bozeman or the University of Montana will take a day and half trip to attend a Financial Literacy Workshop held by the Student Assistance Foundation (SAF) campus office. The SAF staff provides presentations on the following topics: College planning; College Success Strategies; FASFA Information, High-risk Student Assistance, Transfer Student Assistance, Scholarship Assistance, Default
Resolution, Money Management Assistance, Assistance with Campus Partners, Resource Referrals and Loan Entrance and Exit Counseling.
Workshops will be advertised via the BCC website, on Facebook, local radio station and flyers posted through the campus. Workshops will focus on recruiting high school seniors, freshmen, veterans, transfer students and students with default loans. The workshops will be available to all the student population and no one will be turned away. Workshops will be held in the Computer Lab for access to Student Financial Services approved financial literacy education materials and online tools along with financial literacy materials provided by workshop instructors. Materials used in the workshops will be developed from online workbooks, Montana University System financial literacy resources, GetMoneySmarts budgeting resources, Student Assistance
Foundation resources: SmartAboutCollege.org, KnowHow2GoMontana.org & Trustudent.com, USA Funds and materials the Academic Enrichment Department has used in teaching their cohort of students and other financial literacy materials that will be relevant to workshop topics. During fall and spring semester, there are 5 college readiness courses: Learning Strategies for Higher Education and Tribal College First Year Seminar that target freshman students. Financial literacy will be incorporated into the curriculum so that one day a month each of these classes will have a guest speaker present financial literacy education. The Program Manager will work with the instructors of these courses in developing topics for each month so they are not
duplicated and cover a vast array of subjects on financial literacy. Approximately 80 students per semester will receive financial literacy curriculum.
In January, BCC will host a New Student Orientation workshop over 3 days. Financial Literacy Education will be incorporated into the Orientation and students will learn how to develop a financial worksheet they can use for their own personal budget for the year. Financial Literacy education will become a regular component in future New Student Orientation’s. We will be targeting approximately 75 students each semester.
Financial literacy education materials will be available for all students through the Student Success Center, Medicine Springs Library, Counseling Center, Financial Aid Office, AES Department and Admissions.
A campus-wide advisory board will be established with representatives from the Student Success Office, Academic Enrichment Services, Financial Aid, Student Government, Counseling
Department, Faculty and high school representative. The advisory board will meet on a quarterly basis to assist the Program Manager by providing direction through assessment data gathered from completed workshops and ensure that best practices are being utilized in providing financial education.
Activity Timeline by Quarter:
GOAL: Increase campus-based financial literacy education to new, current, potential college students (high school seniors) and BCC students, along with their families, who will be transferring to a university by 30%.
Objective 1: Collaborate with Browning Public Schools, Browning Community Development Corporation, Native American Development Corporation and Student Assistance Foundation to provide financial literacy to Browning High School Senior’s and BCC Students and their families.
Activity Quarter: 1 2 3 4
Hire part-time data/clerical worker X
Organize campus-wide advisory committee with one representative for Browning High School Seniors and schedule quarterly meetings.
X X X Schedule workshop dates for the year in collaboration with BCDC, NADC &
BHS for participation
X Plan and Integrate financial literacy component into the College Readiness
curriculum to include a guest speaker once a month for each class.
X X X Plan financial literacy session for the New Student Orientation workshop in
January
X Develop pre and post-performance indicators for each workshop and New
Student Orientation participants.
X X
Objective 2: To engage students and their families in financial management, reducing student debt, financial aid awareness and improve student financial literacy through
workshops, incorporating financial literacy into the College Readiness curriculum and New Student Orientation.
Activity Quarter: 1 2 3 4 PELL & Scholarship Workshop in November, January & April – Gaylene
DuCharme, Financial Aid Director, BCC
X X X Finance Management Workshop in November, January & April – Shannon
Walter, Payroll Manager, BCC
X X X Income Tax Workshop in December – Elva Dorsey, Financial Education
Coordinator, BCDC
X X Family Financial Management Workshop in February – Butch Conway,
Certified Financial Counselor, NADC
X X Student trip to MSU-Bozeman and University of Montana to attend S.A.F.
Financial Literacy Workshops on campus
X New Student Orientation Financial Planning session in January. – Gaylene
DuCharme, Financial Aid Director, BCC
X Managing & Reducing Student Loan Debt Workshop in March, May, June –
Glenda Gilham, Academic Coordinator, Academic Enrichment Services
X X X Transfer Student & Financing Options Workshop in Dec., March & May – X X X
Glenda Gilham, Academic Coordinator, Academic Enrichment Services Guest speakers will provide financial literacy in 5 College Readiness classes once a month during fall and spring semester, targeting freshmen and
academically challenged students who may not likely attend these types of workshops.
X X X
In order to get students attention to attend workshops that we know are beneficial for their financial well-being; we need to offer incentives that will get students to participate. We have included incentives for students (high school and college) who complete individual workshops and those who complete Community Service Learning projects. Incentives include getting a meal plan for BCC’s Snack Bar, gas cards, grocery cards, iTunes cards, jump drives, book store certificates, calendar planners, phone cards, etc. that will help them out.
15 scholarships for students, who will complete a series of 4 workshops (PELL& Scholarships, Finance Management, Managing & Reducing Student Loan Debt and Transfer Students & Financing Options) will be offered. Three scholarships will be designated for high school seniors to use toward attending a college of their choice.
3. Outcomes:
Outcomes will be measured from the results of the pre and post assessments completed by students for each workshop and New Student Orientation.
Performance indicators:
How many High School Seniors, college freshmen, transfer students and other college students attended Financial Literacy workshops?
How many students attended the Financial Literacy session during New Student Orientation? On post-survey, rating what they learned on a scale from 1 (low) to 6 (high) for each workshop and/or guest speaker in the classrooms.
On post-survey a comment section asking what one important thing they learned from this workshop.
Develop a syllabus for each Financial Literacy workshop and describe activities planned and information that will be used.
Materials and resources will be developed to incorporate financial literacy education at BCC through workshops, College Readiness curriculum and New Student Orientation.
4. Long-Term Impact:
What is the potential long-term impact of the project?
The long-term impact for our BCC students is they will have obtained knowledge to be
financially educated in managing their future finances. These students will be more cognizant of their financial management practices, make practical financial decisions, and know how to budget for themselves and their family. How to improve their credit score thus making them
credit worthy should the need arise. They will have the tools to assist others in financial management, especially future college students within their circle of family and friends. The project will be implemented as a regular part of the College Readiness curriculum at BCC and included in the New Student Orientation each semester, which is required as part of graduation.
Describe the impact on other populations not directly involved in the project, if applicable. Other populations that will be impacted by students attending these financial literacy education workshops will be the families of these students. Students will utilize the tools they have learned to manage their finances, pay attention to the financial implications of transferring to another town and university, and use the best practices they learned to maintain financial freedom from debt as a student and as a family.
Can the project be utilized on other campuses?
The project covers basic information for the college-bound student’s financial survival that the curriculum can be applied in any financial education situation. Online resource materials and materials used over the course of the project will be developed into a workshop curriculum for each workshop offered. The curriculum developed can be utilized on other tribal college campuses, community college campuses and university college campuses. This project can be used to educate junior and senior high school students in financial literacy education.
5. Data Reporting:
A part-time Data/Clerical person will be hired specifically to gather data for this project. Each student participant will be tracked through sign-in sheets, how many workshops they participate in, what type of student they are (high school, freshman, transfer, veteran, etc.).
Students in the College Readiness classes will receive a pre-survey and post-survey for each financial literacy component offered throughout the project year.
Student participation will be collected by sign-in sheets for each workshop and New Student Orientation. Blackfeet Community College uses Campus Anywhere data software for student tracking and students attending these workshops will be entered into the database upon
completion of each workshop.
Input from the pre and post-surveys will be compared and analyzed to ensure we are meeting our performance indicators, outcomes and goals of the project.
Families who participate in any of the workshops will also fill out a pre and post-survey for measuring their knowledge of financial literacy and what they have learned.
Budget:
Blackfeet Community College, Financial Literacy Budget Description Program Manager, 25%. BA $13,300 Data/Clerical, part-time $8,400 3 part-time instructors $4,800 Total Salaries $26,500 Fringe: 16.3% $2,950
Fringe: 11.3% on part-time clerical $949
Total Fringe $3,899
Total Personnel $30,399
Travel
1 staff and 5 students to MSU-Bozeman $1,571 1 staff and 5 students to University of MT $1,444
Total Travel $3,015
Supplies
Educational supplies for workshops $900
Financial Organizer Books $3,600
Student incentives $4,500
14 workshop meals for participants $2,800
Basic office supplies $900
Total Supplies $12,700
Other
18 "Finish the Workshop Series" Scholarships $9,000
2 Consultants for special workshops $800
Guest Speakers for College Readiness $1,000
Total Other $10,800
IDC: 33.7% $10,244
Budget Narrative: Personnel
Program Manager 25% (will be an additional duty of current Student Services employee): $1,400/mo. X 9.5 months, BA. 1/2 salary in Oct. = $13,300
Data/Clerical, part-time, 9.5 months, AA degree, $10.50/hr. x 40 hrs./pp= $420/pp x20 pp = $8,400
3 instructors to instruct workshops. They will be BCC staff who work in the area they will be instructing. $400 per workshop x 12 workshops = $4,800
Fringe 16.3% on Program Manager & Instructors = $2950 Fringe: 11.3% on part-time employees = $949
Travel
1 staff and 5 students to travel to MSU-Bozeman, 1.5 days to attend SAF Workshop on Financial Literacy.
Perdiem: $66 ($396) Mileage: 550x.55=$305 Van rental: $300 Rooms for 1 night: $95 ($570) Total for 6: $1,571.
1 staff and 5 students to travel to University of Montana, Missoula, 1.5 days to attend SAF Workshop on Financial Literacy.
Perdiem: $66 (396) Mileage: 410x.55=$228 Van rental: $250 Rooms for 1 night: $95 ($570) Total: $1,444
Supplies
Calculators for workshop participants to keep. 180 students x $5/ea. = $900
180 Financial Organizer Planners for Finance Planning Workshop participants to keep & use during workshops. 180 x $20 = $3,600
Incentives, gas cards, meal plans, book store certificate, jump drives, calendar planners, Itune cards, grocery cards, phone cards, etc. for students who complete each workshop. 180 incentives x $25/ea. = $4,500
14 workshop meals provided to workshop participants. $200 x 14 = $2,800 office supplies: copy paper, basic office supplies, $100/mo. X 9 mo's $900 Other
Scholarships for 15 BCC students who complete the series of 4 workshops. 15 x $500/ea. = $7,500 and 3 High School Students who complete the series of 4 different workshops. 3 x $500/ea.=$1,500 = $9,000
Consultants: (Income tax) (family financial planning) workshops. $400 x 2 workshops = $800 10 Guest Speakers to teach a 1 day financial literacy to 5 College Readiness classes once a semester for fall and spring semesters. This will be 5 speakers a semester x 2 x $100/speaker = $1,000
