Our first Financial Education Innovation & Impact Summit included the announcement of a new, research-to-practice initiative to champion and advance effective, population-specific practices in financial education. Joining us for that announcement was one of the first organizations to participate in this endeavor: The Appalachian College Association (ACA).
Selecting the ACA meant gaining access to a student body made up of first-generation, rural and lower-income college students in the backbone of the Appalachian region, from Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia. Our goal was to work collaboratively with the association and individual colleges in strategizing, developing, implementing, promoting and measuring the success of customized financial education interventions tailored to their undergraduate population.
Throughout the 2023-24 and 2024-25 school years, over 1,000 students on seven ACA campuses participated in remote, in-person or hybrid opportunities to prepare for their financial future. Quantitative and qualitative data was collected to provide a fully transparent evaluation of the purpose and benefits of the work.
A full analysis of the outcomes of this project are now available in an independent report.