Attempting to pay for post-secondary education can be stressful, so Vanier Collegiate wants to help students and families better understand what financing options are available to them.
Finance Your Education takes place on Wednesday, May 8 at 7 p.m. in the Vanier Collegiate library, located at 324 MacDonald Street. The meeting is geared toward students in grades 11 and 12 and their parents/guardians, plus past graduates who are considering post-secondary. However, all high school students are welcome to attend.
This meeting is open to all students in both school divisions in Moose Jaw and surrounding area.
Employees with Conexus Credit Union will discuss topics such as:
• Accessing RESPs
• Student line of credit and accounts
• Canada and Saskatchewan student loans
• Scholarships and bursaries
• Financial literacy tips
This meeting will help families understand how to pay for university, college or a trades school, explained Christa Lapointe, a business education teacher and career counsellor at Vanier.
“It can be a daunting task trying to figure out where to go to school, what to take, but also how to pay for it,” she said. This is why Conexus Credit Union is brought in to make the presentation: to teach financial literacy skills.
Having those skills ensures students can make better decisions, whether it’s long-term or day-to-day, Lapointe continued. Giving young people more tools and information earlier in life can help them be more informed about their financial situation.
Some families have taken advantage of the Registered Education Savings Plan (RESP) program already, while other families might be sending their first child off to post-secondary and not know how to access that program. Conexus will help families understand how to take advantage of it.
Some students might not be able to access RESPs at all, so they might look at lines of credit, said Lapointe. This will help them understand how to borrow money and how to save money.
“A lot of students might never have learned to get a co-signer before or a guarantor before,” she added.
Scholarships and awards are important and are usually offered by the institution that students are attending. It can be overwhelming to look into those, said Lapointe, so this discussion can help students know how to access this free money.
Federal and provincial student loans can also help students finance their education.
“No one is ever going to get enough money through student loans or anything else,” Lapointe said, so the presentation will also help students understand how to find summer jobs and how to manage their money to supplement their education.
“Education is an investment, but you also want to manage that and be smart about how to pay it down or go through school with the least amount of debt as possible,” she added.
Lapointe teaches classes in entrepreneurship and accounting, so she has more opportunity to connect with students about finances. She pointed out several schools in Saskatchewan have started teaching personal finance courses, while other classes such as life transitions can teach about money.
“It’s definitely worthwhile for families to start talking, educating and having more conversations,” she added, “because while time flies, these types of decisions can sneak up on people quickly.”
