USA Funds® Life Skills Offers New Components
Submitted by Mae Dunn-St. Julien, Sandy Holt and Adriana White, USA Funds Services

USA Funds® has introduced new financial-literacy materials to address the special needs of married students and medical students. The new components expand the USA Funds Life Skills® curriculum for graduate and professional students and other adult learners. USA Funds Life Skills® equips postsecondary institutions to teach their students to manage their time and money wisely while they are on campus and after graduation.

USA Funds now offers a complete module, “Connect as a Couple – Confronting Relationship Challenges Together,” that offers interactive exercises, advice and resources for married students. The module covers key topics for married students, such as how to:

• Adjust to their new roles and tasks while one or both are in school.
• Anticipate and manage their financial challenges as a couple.
• Negotiate time for each other.
• Make decisions as a couple.

The other new component of USA Funds Life Skills®, “How Do I Survive During My Residency?”, is an interactive CD-ROM that offers medical students and residents tips for coping with the financial challenges and pressures they encounter during residency.

The CD-ROM discusses key personal-finance considerations, including managing student loans during residency, estimating personal income and living costs, and charting a time line for key issues important to residents. The program also provides information about factors to consider in selecting a residency program, tips for maintaining physical and emotional health, and suggestions for maintaining healthy relationships despite the demands of residency. The CD features a “life story” in which a resident explains how she copes with the challenges associated with her residency.

USA Funds Life Skills® materials for graduate and professional students are available at no cost to postsecondary institutions that use USA Funds as their primary guarantor and to all minority-serving postsecondary institutions. For additional information, visit www.usafunds.org, and select “Financial-Aid Professionals,” “Debt-Management Information,” and “USA Funds Life Skills.”