SAC and Wells Fargo Team Up for Financial Literacy


An innovative program will showcase the benefits of cooperation between Santa Ana College and the business community. The college has announced an initiative with Wells Fargo to help improve the financial literacy of SAC students to better prepare them for managing their money while in college and beyond. Wells Fargo has provided a $20,000 grant for the program. In addition, experts from Wells Fargo will teach personal financial management as part of the college's life skills counseling curriculum.

The goal of the financial literacy initiative is to expand students' knowledge and skills while helping them acquire the financial tools necessary for achieving their academic, personal, and professional goals. The initiative will be managed by a team, including the SAC Foundation, Financial Aid Office, Counseling Division, and Freshman Experience Program.

The program will begin with a pilot phase during this summer's Freshman Experience Conference in which entering SAC freshmen receive orientation prior to their start in the Fall semester. Then the hands-on lectures will be incorporated into the ongoing counseling curriculum to provide real-world information on topics, including budgeting and cash flow, the importance of saving, grants and loans, financial terms, how banks and lending institutions work, credit scores and maintaining good credit, how to obtain loans, APR and interest calculations, and more.

For many students, the college experience is a series of firsts: their first college courses and their first time managing their own finances. In 2006-2007 alone, our students secured over $796,000 in total loans and received more than $365,000 in student scholarships. With these funds comes the need to understand how to manage money. And these skills will be invaluable throughout their lives. The Santa Ana College student community offers an opportunity for Wells Fargo to create significant impact in financial literacy for a market that is underserved in this area.

It is estimated that the program will involve some 2,000 students and 30 instructors for the 2007-2008 academic year. In addition, other non-classroom activities and financial literacy programs will impact over 9,000 students.


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