Recorded: Tuesday, April 16, 2019
Duration: One hour
Cost: FREE
Speaker: Shannon Cross

Award letters are a key to student recruitment, but today’s award letters are hard to decipher for families as they try to make decisions on the best fit for their prospective student. The format is inconsistent, terminology is confusing and bottom-line cost is too hard to figure out. What can you do when 63% of recently enrolled and prospective students note feeling lost when searching for college or financial aid options?

Join us as we look at how to build a better award letter noting studies on award letter pitfalls and improvements for content, brand and student experience to help families make better financial decisions.

Recorded on: Thursday, February 20, 2019
Duration: One hour
Cost: FREE
Speaker: Stacy Yanchuk Oleksy
Director of Education and Community Awareness
Credit Counseling Society

If you would like to request the webinar recap and supporting documentation, please complete the form on this page.

Keeping up with Joneses used to mean competing with your neighbors with homes, cars, and vacations. Now, thanks to social media, it means keeping up with the Kardashians with Instagram worthy shots of lavish homes, designer bags, and champagne trips on a beer budget.

A majority of Millennials report that social media wreaks havoc on their spending, and yet FOMO (fear of missing out) keeps leading them into debt. Add in the ease of accessing money via fintech (mobile payments), and it’s a perfect recipe for financial disaster.

How can we prepare students to say no in a world of nonstop peer pressure to spend, while technology makes it ever easier to do so?

In this Inceptia rebroadcast, originally presented in 2019, the impact still applies as we explore the effects of social media on spending and saving, the drawbacks of fintech, and how to tailor financial education programs to inform and empower students to resist.

Since the spring of 2016, Inceptia has collected survey data from college and university students across the country in order to better understand financial behaviors. Analyzing the choices that students make about money, the steps they take to be financially well, or the ways in which they view their own competency, can provide a valuable baseline regarding their levels of financial capability. In addition, it can better inform the learning objectives and areas of focus for financial education programming, aligning our efforts to meet the needs of our students.

This brief discusses the results of data from over 60,000 respondents weighing in on a number of topics that initially self-rates their financial knowledge and then asks key questions regarding saving, protecting and preparing to determine the degree of disparity between perceived knowledge and applied behaviors.

Recorded on: Thursday, November 8, 2018
Duration: One hour
Cost: FREE
Speakers: Lillian Singh, Director of the Racial Wealth Divide Initiative; Prosperity Now
Kristin Bhaumik, Associate Director Financial Wellness, Advising and Eligibility Units; University of Michigan | Office of Financial Aid
Niki Pechinski, Financial Literacy Educator; University of MN Duluth

If you would like to request the webinar recap and supporting documentation, please complete the form on this page.

As educators seeking to empower all students, we sometimes view education as a panacea to level the playing field for all. Yet, there is a silent and often overlooked factor that heavily influences the student experience and ability to persist and thrive in college: the racial wealth divide.

At a time when black families hold only $5.04 in wealth for every $100 held by white families, with household wealth for minorities on a 50-75% decline since 1983, it is imperative to examine how this gap plays out across academics and how we can take steps to broaden the discussion on our campuses.

This one-hour webinar combines thought-provoking research and practice to examine how minority students struggle against systemic economic disparity. With expert speakers from Prosperity Now, the University of Michigan, and the University of Minnesota – Duluth, attendees will learn about:

• Data surrounding the current realities of how people of color are impacted by racial wealth inequality, and practical solutions on how practitioners can better serve students to improve their financial stability
• How to introduce students to the topic via course integration
• How to provide peer mentor training that incorporates awareness of and reflection on economic inequality

The Millennials changed everything. Being the first group of “digital natives,” these students ushered in the era of online forms, email advising, and student portals. As with previous generations, they forced colleges and universities to adapt, but to a greater degree and with more sweeping change than their predecessors.

Now that Gen Z has taken over as the new “traditional” college student, institutions may see them as little more than “Millennials on steroids.” However, this view would do injustice to a generation that, while also adept users of technology, diverge from Millennials in a number of areas that present both opportunities and challenges to higher education professionals.

This research brief aims to help schools better understand the unique needs of Generation Z.

Recorded on: Tuesday, April 24, 2018
Duration: One hour
Cost: FREE
Speakers: Shanah Bell, Holistic Health Advisor and Owner, AdaptiveNourishment, LLC
Clare Cady, Director, Community Engagement; HOPE Center for College, Community, and Justice at Temple University
Megan Scherling, Program Coordinator, Student Money Management Center at University of Nebraska Lincoln
Carissa Uhlman, Vice President of Student Success, Inceptia

If you would like to request the webinar recording and supporting documentation, please complete the form on this page.

As part of our Financial Capability Month series, Inceptia explores the growing epidemic of students going hungry on campus. Despite massive dining halls and excessive food buffets, an increasing number of college students lack access to the basic nourishment necessary to support their academic dreams. This epidemic is spreading from the smallest of community colleges to the largest of elite institutions, often a source of quiet shame for those students who suffer in silence. What can we, as campus communities, do to provide support so that no student goes hungry?

In this one hour webinar, we’ll discuss how food insecurity happens in such a food-rich environment, and how going hungry impacts every area of life for these students. Utilizing a body of growing research, we’ll look at how some institutions are working to tackle this problem head on. Finally, we’ll hear from one school on what it takes to open and run a campus food pantry, as they provide insights from their first year of operation.

Recorded on: Tuesday, April 2, 2018
Duration: One hour
Cost: FREE
Speakers: Sophia Bera, owner of Gen Y Planning and CNBC contributor
Jennifer Hemphill, an Accredited Financial Counselor and host of the Her Money Matters podcast

If you would like to request the webinar recording and supporting documentation, please complete the form on this page.

From the time they are born, studies show that women are behind the curve when it comes to money: we talk finances with boys more than with girls, parents save less for their daughters’ college education than their sons’, and straight out of college, men earn over $6,000 more per year than their female counterparts, on average. The end result is a gender divide that equates to women working longer hours, for more years, with less wealth and retirement security.

In honor of Equal Pay Day, join Inceptia to learn more about what the financial education community can do to address the unique financial struggles that women face. Guest speakers will include Sophia Bera, owner of Gen Y Planning and CNBC contributor, and Jennifer Hemphill, an Accredited Financial Counselor and host of the Her Money Matters podcast. They’ll share their insights into the female financial literacy gap, challenges facing minority women, and suggestions for empowering female students to take control of their finances.

Perhaps more than any generation before them, the Millennial and Gen Z generations are forcing higher education institutions to adapt to their needs and preferences. As "digital natives," these students are demanding that schools employ technology and online solutions to address what have traditionally been paper-driven processes.

And with an overwhelming majority of Millennials reporting the financial aid process is confusing (74 percent) and stressful (76 percent), the financial aid office, perhaps more than any other campus department, stands to reap the greatest benefits as a result of meeting these technological demands.

This research brief aims to help schools develop strategies to better align student financial aid expectations with institutional outcomes.

Please fill out the form and click submit. A PDF of the research brief will be delivered to the email address you provided.

Recorded on: Wednesday, June 12, 2019
Duration: One hour
Cost: FREE
Speakers: Andrea Pellegrini, Assistant Director, University Student Financial Services & Cashier Operations (USFSCO) - Student Money Management Center, University of Illinois System
Carissa Uhlman, Vice President of Student Success, Inceptia

If you would like to request the webinar recording and supporting documentation, please complete the form on this page.

Move over Millennials – Gen Z is coming! This next generation of students grew up with cellphones in hand, but rarely make phone calls. As “digital natives,” they demand that schools employ technology and online solutions to address what have traditionally been paper-driven processes. Thus, learning their language and partnering with technology can help colleges & universities adapt to these bright young minds.

Just employing technology, however, does not necessarily ensure student success, nor does it replace critical interpersonal interactions. A balance must be found between transactional and transformational services to provide students with the best experience—a balance that can only be achieved by better understanding what defines “best experience” for these generations.

In this one-hour webinar, Andrea Pellegrini from the University of Illinois System and Carissa Uhlman of Inceptia will present research and best practices to help colleges create effective communication outcomes by aligning their messaging with Gen Z preferences. The presentation will cover:

• General understanding of Gen Z traits and influences
• Communication and engagement strategies for Gen Z
• Real-world scenarios from the University of Illinois to easily meet Gen Z where they are