Honors students within the College of Business will be offered a new course come springtime. The course focuses on students’ money management skills.

“The goal is to help students to acquire skills to make sound money management decisions,” said Shoba Premkumar, senior lecturer of finance. “It’s the first time offering an honors seminar class on money management.”

A similar course, a community service project, was offered in the fall of 2009. However, it was open to everyone, including students, faculty and community members. The seminar that will be provided next semester is exclusive to honors students.

“Everyone has loans,” Premkumar said. “Knowledge of personal finance would be helpful [to students].” 

The students will learn about personal finances from real industry executives such as Tom Coates, CEO of Consumer Credit Des Moines; Chad Olson, assistant director of the Office of Financial Aid; and Rick Reger, an American National Insurance Company agent.

All of the guest speakers who will attend the seminar chose to do so on a voluntary basis.

“I like Iowa State, it’s a good campus,” Coates said. “I want to further educate students to be better armed for those decisions.”

The purpose is to help students learn early so that they may make better decisions later on in life.

“Financial literacy to students in schools is really important,” said Rick Dark, interim chairman of accounting and finance. “Students in particular are going out, getting jobs and starting families. Financial understanding is helpful if you do it wisely.”

The students will attend the one-hour course, which will feature guest speakers for first 30 minutes and discussion and questions during the last half. The students will also need to do and turn in assignments about what they learned from the speakers and provide feedback.

“It’s a new approach to teaching,” Premkumar said. “Feedback is to find if the course was successful and to see what else they want to learn.”

This course is a prototype of sorts because once it is finished, similar courses might be offered after changes based on student feedback are incorporated. In the future, the course may also be offered to all students, rather than exclusively to honors students.