Expanding Programs to Move Social Work Students from Economic Crisis to Engagement and on to Financial Well-Being

Background and Purpose: This case study describes a program in a U.S. school of social work to build students’ financial well-being and preemptively address potential exit from school due to financial distress. Students’ financial situations have become more precarious due to external events, resulting in significant financial crises around basic needs. Students struggling with education loans who exit without completing degrees experience a negative impact on their potential economic mobility, affecting their families and futures. Preliminary components of the project encompassed several programmatic initiatives including: creating a new website portal for students to assess their financial well-being and link to aggregated resources and services where needs can be addressed, creating a new video library of student financial well-being offerings and resources, and funding a one-time consultant to assist the Office of Student Affairs to design workshops that address the financial complexities of balancing work, family, and career education experienced by “First Generation” and other vulnerable students. A fourth aspect of the project involved a train-the-trainer model to embed financial coaching around student loan debt for current students. An evaluation component was also included that assessed not only the training itself, but also the student loan debt coaching experience. The present study focuses on the impact of the training and coaching experience.

Methods: Nine social work students, alum, and other social work colleagues were trained to conduct student loan debt coaching and the intricacies around this issue. Each coach then conducted an individual coaching session with up to ten current students. An anonymous online survey was offered to each student on the effectiveness and usefulness of the coaching encounter. A $25 gift card was given to each student who completed the survey.

Results: Results indicated strong support for this program—not only for the information and guidance proffered and how students were able to use the support to navigate their questions and issues regarding their student loans, but also for the encouragement and help in tackling larger financial stability issues.

Conclusions and Implications: Student loan debt and other issues revolving around student financial well-being are critical areas for social work students. These subjects—especially within the context of the pandemic and its financial impact—have clarified that robust programming is needed to maximize student financial well-being and move them beyond crisis to greater engagement and stability. Lessons learned are instructive for other schools of social work in offering this programming and assistance for their students.