In a time when financial stress is a constant in college students’ lives, Dickinson College is making great efforts to equip students with the financial backgrounds they need to enter the economic world. At the forefront of this effort is FLASH, a financial literacy program to give students integral knowledge about real world financial responsibilities.
FLASH, which stands for Financial Literacy Access Secures Hope, has found its home within the Burgess Institute of Global Development. This organization benefits from the collaboration of the Career Center, Financial Aid and Admission offices, Alumni, Students and Human Resources.
Joy Middaugh, senior lecturer in international business & management and the founder of FLASH, hopes the program will encourage students to make proactive decisions towards financials. As she discusses FLASH, she has the aim of permanently implementing it at Dickinson to ensure opportunities for students in the future.
In honor of National Financial Literacy Month, FLASH hosted i a financial literacy boot camp on April 5 that introduced the concepts of earning, spending, saving/investment, borrowing and protecting financial assets.
This boot camp featured seven alumni speakers ranging from classes of 1993 to 2024. Their diverse careers and life experiences allowed students to get multiple perspectives on ways to embrace the financial world. Topics such as interest, taxes, credit cards, compound interest, phishing scams and budgeting were all discussed.
Alongside the initial presentations, students had the opportunity to sit down with the alumni and ask more personalized questions. Jeff Murison ’93 discussed the importance of starting early on these topics and preparing yourself for outside of college.
Although the program was geared towards seniors, the turnout of freshmen eager to get a head start was bountiful. According to Eva Hartley ’28, “the speakers were very knowledgeable and willing to help us as much as they could. The bootcamp had good pacing and the amount of information was succinctly portrayed in a very introductory way.”
Despite the introductory information offered in this bootcamp, the idea of investment and saving proved to be very complex for students, who suggested a more in-depth class in this area.
Financial literacy is a lifelong skill needed for success. As many speakers reiterated throughout the day, “I wish I had someone to tell me this at twenty and not thirty.” FLASH hopes to see more Dickinson students take advantage of their workshops.
