NASFAA Business Affiliate Webinar: Strengthening Financial Aid Conversations Around Student Well-Being

This session explores the powerful connection between students’ financial challenges and their mental health. The first 30 minutes will feature key findings from the Fall 2024 Student Financial Wellness Survey, including that 56 % of students would have trouble accessing $500 in an emergency and 33 % reported symptoms of major depressive disorder and 44 % showed signs of generalized anxiety—underscoring how financial insecurity and mental health concerns intersect.

In the second half, a panel of experienced practitioners will discuss how financial aid professionals can engage in empathetic, informed conversations with students experiencing stress due to finances. Panelists will share practical strategies and communication techniques to help you recognize signs of financial stress, connect students with appropriate resources, and foster holistic support that advances both well-being and student success.

About HEFWA

HEFWA was created as a result of the success of the annual Higher Education Financial Wellness Summit (originally known as the National Summit on Collegiate Financial Wellness), which was first held in 2014. 

The Summit's initial objective was to bring together practitioners to explore how institutions can better provide resources to students that help address issues related to student debt and a lack of financial literacy. Programming has expanded to also address barriers to degree completion that stem from students' financial issues, such as food insecurity, homelessness, and overall financial fragility.

While the Summit has been a positive venue for bringing together financial wellness champions from around the country, there is now a clear demand for the opportunity to continue the conversations throughout the rest of the year. This is the reason for the Alliance: to be the premiere forum for conversations related to financial wellness in higher education.

Speakers

Phil Schuman Executive Director Higher Education Financial Wellness Alliance	Michele Skinner, Ed.D Director of Mental Health Initiatives The Texas A&M University System
Nathan Astle Founder/Financial Therapist Financial Therapy Clinical Institute	Carla Fletcher Principal Research Associate Trellis Company

Technical Requirements

Before accessing your webinar, ensure you meet the technical requirements. We highly recommend using Google Chrome as your browser while viewing the webinars. For more information, review NASFAA's Technical Support page. You may contact [email protected] with any questions.

Feedback

We want to ensure we are delivering the most pertinent information to our webinar audience. To assist us in preparation for this webinar, please take this opportunity to share questions you would like addressed during this webinar by emailing [email protected].

Accommodations

If you require any special accommodations for this webinar, please contact us at [email protected]. Accommodations must be requested at least two weeks prior to the live presentation date of the webinar.

Certificate of Attendance

NASFAA provides a downloadable and printable certificate of attendance to webinar attendees. A certificate is available only to the individual who logs into the webinar console.