April marks the beginning of Tennessee Financial Literacy Month, and to celebrate MTSU launched a two-week series of games and keynote speakers on Wednesday. The events aim to teach students about investing and personal finance, with $10,000 of financial aid awards available for participants.

The MTSU Department of Economics and Finance plans to host educational speakers and games until April 16. 

Undergraduate students who attend the keynote and another event and submit a one to two-minute video reflection by April 21 may have a chance to win one of the financial aid awards. Prizes range from $100 up to $1,000. Judges evaluate submissions and allocate prizes according to the quality of the video, engagement with the event and other factors including video production or animation abilities, professor and Financial Literacy Month Planning Committee Lead Keith Gamble said.

“I think most students find a nice setting, sit down with their phone and record a short video statement and that is perfectly sufficient,” Gamble said. “But this is a competition. I think those skills can help some students rise to the top.”

Ascend Federal Credit Union, along with MTSU departments including the Jones College of Business, Department of Economics and Finance and MT OneStop, sponsored the activities. MT OneStop plans to host PLINKO and Game of Life April 2-4.

OneStop Outreach Coordinator Melanie Crowder staffed the PLINKO table in the Student Atrium. Students answered financial literacy questions, grabbed a wooden puck from the pop-up table and placed it at the top of a six-foot peg board. The puck bumped the pegs toward the bottom, where there were numbered slots associated with the amount of prizes participants would receive.

Crowder demonstrated financial aid information in classrooms through a smaller version of the Game of Life event on April 3, she said. MT OneStop representatives discussed budgeting, financial aid and other services the office provides. 

“It’s a real-life simulation of the board game,” Crowder said.

Each student player used the anticipated salaries of their major, calculated by using an online database, and moved through nine tables of budget items. Once finished, each player needed a positive balance to win.

“This is a great way for students to think about decisions that they may not have thought about much yet,” Gamble said. “How to make smart insurance decisions, how to think about retirement planning.”

This month also helps financial aid workers educate students who accepted loans.

Students don’t often create a financial plan before graduation, Crowder said. Those who stop enrollment or graduate must begin payments on student loans within six months. 

“They can plan before they graduate,” Crowder said. “It’s something that kind of hits them very soon after they leave school, and it’s good they have a plan for that time.”

Maria King, director of the Tennessee Council on Economic and Free Enterprise Education in the Jones College of Business, selected keynote speaker Manisha Thakor, a chartered financial analyst and a certified financial planner. Thakor, who will speak on April 16, practiced 30 years in finance and is a staunch advocate for women’s financial literacy, according to her website.

“We feel like this is an area that needed a voice, and we found the voice in Manisha, and certainly this will benefit men too,” Gamble said. “Financial decision-making is not gender-based, but I think the message of the importance of making smart financial decisions of the female may have not been emphasized as much as we’d like … We thought this is a theme this year the university very much needed.”

Audio production major Ted Shockley praised the initiative for promoting loan repayment awareness and university resources toward financial literacy. He values the James E. Walker Library and participates in monthly financial workshops related to his major. 

“There’s a lot of like career preparation stuff that they do, because a lot of people get into freelance. And taxes are complicated when you do freelance,” Shockley said. “It can also be hard just to make ends meet because income is really kind of inconsistent.”

Nico Munoz, a supply chain management major, believes university financial literacy programs would benefit students.

“I think it would be good for students to actually learn about [finance] since a lot of us aren’t taught early on,” Munoz said. “Everybody has to learn about that at some point.” 

The Jones College of Business IGNITE career program, Beta Alpha Psi and MTSU’s Department of Finance and Economics provide additional resources to students seeking financial education, assistance or career planning.

Events like the certified financial planner panel and the investment basics workshop may be geared toward students interested in financial careers, but these workshops don’t exclude other majors, Gamble said.

“This is for students who want to know how to make smarter financial decisions,” Gamble said. “I think every major at the university can benefit from understanding better how to make smart financial decisions over their lifetime.”

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