Financial Wellness is Personal to Me

As a first-generation college student, a financial gap nearly prevented me from registering for my second year. I eventually found the right support, but the experience showed me how easily a manageable problem can become an enrollment crisis when students do not understand their options.

That experience eventually led me to co-found Arbol.

Hosted by UNC Charlotte, the 2026 HEFWA Summit brought together people working across financial wellness, financial aid, student affairs, basic needs, research, career services, and technology.

The sessions I attended included perspectives from HEFWA, NASPA, UNC Charlotte, East Carolina University, the University of Missouri-Kansas City, NYU, East Texas A&M, Cal State Long Beach, and others. Across very different campuses, the same questions surfaced: How do we reach more students, coordinate support across departments, and show that financial wellness contributes to student success?

Here are my five biggest takeaways.

An Important Development: A Shared Competency Framework

HEFWA used the opening session to introduce its Student Financial Wellness Competency Framework, developed with the Competency-Based Education Network.

HEFWA Executive Director Phil Schuman presented the work alongside perspectives from Intuit, the National Endowment for Financial Education, and student-success leader Julie Payne-Kirchmeier.

The framework includes four domains, 18 competencies, and three stages of development:

• Foundational literacy: understanding financial concepts
• Capability: applying that knowledge to real decisions
• Fluency: carrying those skills into new situations and stages of life

A student may understand what a payment plan is without knowing whether the monthly payment fits their budget. A student may understand loans without knowing how much they can reasonably borrow.

The framework gives institutions a common way to define what students should know, what they should be able to do, and how progress can be measured. It also gives financial wellness leaders something concrete to use when building campus support.

1. Financial wellness should sit inside student-success strategy

In a general session on financial wellness and student success, Dr. Amelia Parnell of NASPA, Dr. Kevin Bailey of UNC Charlotte, and Dr. Julie Payne-Kirchmeier discussed why this work requires institutional commitment.

Financial challenges are rarely isolated. A tuition balance may be connected to reduced work hours, childcare, housing, transportation, family responsibilities, or confusion about financial aid. Addressing the balance alone often leads to a temporary fix.

Institutions also need to design around the students they actually serve. Many students are working adults, parents, commuters, transfers, or the first in their families to attend college.

Financial wellness belongs alongside enrollment, retention, and completion because it directly affects each of them.

2. Collaboration requires clear ownership

One of the most useful lines shared at the Summit was:

“If everybody owns it, nobody owns it.”

At UNC Charlotte, an early financial wellness ecosystem audit led by Brad Yeckley found strong work happening across campus, but much of it was disconnected. Establishing clear leadership helped the university coordinate those efforts and build a broader strategy.

Student affairs often leads this work because its teams are close to students when financial difficulties surface. Financial aid, student accounts, advising, career services, advancement, basic needs, academic affairs, and IT also have important roles.

The goal is not to place every responsibility within one office. It is to give someone responsibility for connecting the work, establishing shared priorities, and keeping the campus focused on the student’s experience.

3. Build programs around real money decisions

Anna Zimmerman and Madeline Waskowiak from the University of Missouri-Kansas City presented “Money Moments that Matter,” which followed students through financial decisions across the college life cycle.

Their examples included helping students understand the financial impact of dropping a course, connecting bill education to re-enrollment support, preparing pharmacy students for loan repayment, and helping pre-law and pre-med students plan for professional-school costs.

Cal State Long Beach shared another strong example: career-specific financial education that helps students understand the realities of working in fields such as dance, social work, and engineering.

These programs work because they help students make a decision already in front of them. Campuses can start by identifying those moments and bringing guidance into the courses, programs, and offices students already use.

4. Practitioners need more capacity

Arbol’s Director of University Success, James Nowak, and Kevin Sutton, Director of Financial Wellness at East Carolina University, facilitated “From Roots to Fruits.”

The discussion included perspectives from ECU, NYU, East Texas A&M, UNC Charlotte, Cal State Long Beach, and institutions at several stages of building their programs. Some were developing peer-mentoring models. Others were embedding financial wellness into financial aid, first-year courses, career preparation, or broader student-success efforts.

A common constraint was staff capacity.

Many programs depend on one or two people to lead workshops, coach students, manage partnerships, collect data, and advocate for funding. Peer mentors, advisors, career coaches, and financial aid counselors can extend that work when they have clear processes and useful tools.

Technology can provide context before a conversation, guide next steps, and support referrals across departments. Practitioners can then spend more time on the work that requires judgment, empathy, and trust.

5. Measure what students do next

Attendance, appointments, and workshop participation show activity. Institutions also need to understand what changed afterward.

The UMKC team shared an example in which students receiving re-enrollment support completed an “Understanding Your Bill” workshop. Student understanding improved significantly after the session, giving the team a clearer measure of impact.

Financial wellness programs should track whether students:

• Build a workable financial plan
• Complete recommended actions
• Access campus or community resources
• Resolve barriers earlier
• Increase their financial confidence
• Remain enrolled and progress toward completion

Student stories help leaders understand what the data represents in someone’s life. Consistent measures show whether an approach works across a larger student population.

Bringing the Work Back to Campus

A campus does not need to build a complete financial wellness program at once.

Choose one important money decision. Identify the departments connected to it. Define the action students should be able to take. Decide how progress will be measured.

Then build from what you learn.

About Arbol

Arbol helps colleges and universities provide personalized financial plans to students and equips staff and peer mentors with a financial counseling toolkit.

Students receive a clear view of their costs, resources, financial gaps, and next steps. Practitioners gain the context and tools to guide conversations, coordinate referrals, and follow progress.

Book a financial wellness strategy session to discuss how this approach could support your students and campus priorities.