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Dec 01, 2014 | Ashley Festa

A Foundation for Financial Health and Wellness

Seminary of the Southwest's new programs to promote student success

 

[ENS] Stephanie Knott will testify that staying debt-free while attending a private graduate school is almost as challenging as the coursework.

 

During her first year at Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, Texas, Knott commuted from her home in San Marcos to Austin for classes, then to New Braunfels for her day job and back again to Austin for her overnight job. Sometimes she would be awake for 24 hours straight.

 

Her determination to leave seminary without debt is palpable. At one point, she was working four jobs to keep afloat while pursuing a master’s degree in counseling.

 

“It has been a roller coaster,” she said. “But I’m investing in myself and my future, so I don’t regret it.”

 

Southwest never wants students to buckle under the financial stress of paying for an education, said Jennielle Strother, vice president of Enrollment Management. So the seminary has created a plan to help alleviate the monetary burden of following God’s call and to prepare students for a healthy financial future.

 

Profound peace of mind

Since its founding in 1952, Southwest hasn’t accepted federal financial aid; instead, it has offered scholarships to encourage students to remain debt-free. Last year, more than half of Southwest’s students received tuition scholarships averaging $7,500 towards the $13,150 annual tuition cost, and students also raised an average of $1,400 from their dioceses, families and parishes.

 

But some students find there’s still a wide gap between the sticker price and available funding; therefore, the seminary will make federal loans available for the first time in its history.

 

To uphold a commitment to students’ financial health, Southwest has established two new programs to help seminarians maintain fiscal stability: One program will provide financial literacy resources throughout a student’s entire lifecycle – from prospect to alum. The other will provide a guide for all facets of a pastor’s or lay minister’s lifelong wellbeing.

 

The Enrollment Management Office plans to create an array of tools to prepare seminarians to manage their finances wisely, starting as early as the prospective student stage. Resources such as webinars, personal phone calls and even one-on-one counseling sessions will help them understand the true cost of student loans. With the help of a Lilly Endowment grant, Southwest will make those resources available, said Strother. The Lilly Endowment has long supported projects that strengthen congregations and the ministers that serve them, and it offered Southwest a $250,000 grant over three years to offset the cost of this robust initiative.

 

“I want anyone who is discerning a call to ministry to have access to resources in order to plan financially to attend seminary,” Strother said. “Being saddled with debt will only impede their ability to do God’s work.”

 

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