South Knoxville News

Maryville College has been selected to receive grant money from The National Endowment for Financial Education (NEFE).

In December 2022, NEFE officials announced they were pledging $2 million to the Appalachian College Association (ACA) and the Colorado Community College System. The ACA is a consortium of 34 private four-year liberal arts colleges in the Appalachian region. Maryville College, along with six other schools in the ACA, was chosen to receive more than $100,000 over the span of two academic years. 

The purpose of the NEFE grant is to support curriculum development that will provide students with financial literacy. 

While many specifics are still to be decided, Maryville College plans for the new financial literacy program to begin in the fall semester. Faculty and staff members in math, social sciences and career services are collaborating on how this important skill set can be best developed in today’s students. 

Angela Delozier, senior lecturer in mathematics, said that the NEFE grant will be beneficial to helping prepare students for life after college, explaining that financial literacy skills are often ignored because some assume that people can just figure it out by themselves, when this is not always the case. “We need to find a way to help students build a financial toolset,” she said. 

Borrowing from one of the College’s taglines – “Everyday Unexpected.” – Delozier explained that by providing a greater developed financial literacy program, students will be better prepared to face the “unexpected and the everyday” of navigating adulthood.

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