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Program offers financial counseling to community |
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Thursday, 13 April 2006 |
by ADAM KING
News Reporter
Senior criminal justice major Sean M. Long will make some valuable
contributions to Appalachian State University’s relationship with the
community if he can launch his financial counseling plan.
Long’s idea is to utilize Appalachian’s department of accounting to
help Boone citizens with financial issues. Long’s principle proposal to
university officials is a one-day event offering financial advice.
“Personal finance classes” and “one-on-one” counseling are some options Long said he hopes to offer following the one-day event.
“We have these great resources of faculty and students [in accounting],” Long said.
Working at Boone’s Legal Aid of North Carolina office, Long
acknowledged the need for such professional advice. Not all clients
know their interest rights.
“Some people don’t understand ‘90 days same as cash,’” Long said. “Some of the people don’t realize they pay for things twice.”
Long’s event would target citizens living below the federal poverty
line, which accounts for 17.9 percent of Watauga County’s population,
according to North Carolina Rural Economic Development Center, Inc.
Student Programs coordinator Shari L. Galiardi heard about the proposal
and called herself a “support mechanism” in the process.
Financial counseling could become a Service-Learning Program course, she said.
“I think it can have a really strong, positive impact,” Galiardi said.
Long said accounting students would have the chance to improve their people skills and resume.
“I’d like to see it become a class,” Long said.
Classes could create a strong tie between the university and the
town—groups that have “lots to learn from each other,” Galiardi
said.
Counseling events could start as early as fall 2006. Summer will serve as time for more networking and planning, Long said.
Developing administrative support is also on the to-do list.
Long said he would like Chancellor Kenneth E. Peacock’s support for the project.
“It would motivate me more knowing someone [with] high authority supports the idea,” Long said.
In addition to the financial counseling project, Long laid groundwork for a science program at Hardin Park School.
Appalachian science professors would speak to students, mainly 7-12 years old, on biology and other subjects.
“Most of the faculty around this campus would be happy to help out,” assistant biology professor Dr. Shea R. Tuberty said.
Targeting younger students is a key point.
Generating early interest in science is important to the subject’s overall advancement, Tuberty said.
“Things have to change at the elementary level,” he said.
Long served as a neutral party coordinating the program.
Incorporating professors into elementary school classes will require invitations from teachers.
Long has been interested in community programs since before college.
He said he wants them to continue after he graduates.
“We need more students like Sean Long at this university,” Galiardi said.
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