Financial Counseling and Student Services is offering new programs to help current students better understand the scholarships available to them.

“We are providing new programs this year to better assist students,” said Jordan Jones, associate director of financial counseling and student services. “We have a financial town hall meeting on Sept. 4 to discuss resources and answer questions students have about the financial aid process.”

Financial Counseling and Student Services will provide a meet and greet opportunity in Resident Halls from Aug. 27 to Sept. 12, for students to get basic questions answered and to discuss the workshops planned for the fall.

There will be two scholarship workshops in the fall on Sept. 10 and 17. The workshops will assist students in creating winning scholarship essays.

“Our big event this year will be the Financial Literacy Conference on Nov. 2 where we are partnering with the community of Abilene to teach students what they need to know about money before they graduate,” Jones said.

This event will give students information on how to manage their money. Students are encouraged to sign up as early as possible. Sign up for the Financial Literacy Conference will open on Aug. 30.

Jones arrived at ACU last year and made it his mission to help students realize the different ways they could be saving money at college.

“I saw a need to help students in areas that most of the population struggles with,” Jones said. “I know when I was in college I did not keep a budget, never knew where to go for scholarships, and I did not know the resources the campus provided. I partnered with our Director, and she agreed that a proactive approach would be helpful to this population.”

Jones said he hopes that these programs provided by the office of Financial Counseling and Student Services will reach students and give them financial stability moving forward so that they can focus on school without the stress of money.

These provided workshops will take place on Sept. 4, 10 and 17.