Empowering Your Financial Future: A Guide to Understanding Credit

Join the Center for Financial Education & Wellness for their Understanding Credit workshop. The event will take place on Tuesday, March 26 at noon in the Hempfield Room. Joel Philistin, director of the Center for Financial Education and Wellness in Oakland, is excited to be hosting this event at the Greensburg campus.

Topics that will be covered include consumer credit, credit cards and scores, student loan repayment, and general financial aid questions. Though all students are welcome to attend, this specific workshop will be geared more toward non-finance majors and first-year students.

Philistin says, “The main reason why it’s important to understand credit is because we utilize credit to afford assets that we can’t afford with our normal income. If we hurt our credit now, it limits our ability to make big purchases down the line. Credit gives us the ability to make these purchases and to use credit to pay it off over time responsibly. It’s important to understand how financial institutions make decisions on how they lend out money so students are equipped with that knowledge.”

Brian Beighley, director of Financial Aid at Pitt-Greensburg, will also be assisting with the workshop to provide general financial aid information. 

“Make sure you complete your 2024-2025 FAFSA. We realized there have been some issues with it, so just make sure that you fill it out as soon as possible before the semester ends and come see me or BJ Sarneso, the assistant director, in the Financial Aid office,” Beighley says.

The Financial Wellness Program offers weekly virtual workshops that are available to all University of Pittsburgh students through this link.

Upcoming topics include budgeting, student loan repayment, financial planning for Study Abroad, and avoiding identity theft.

Students are also encouraged to schedule an appointment with the financial aid officers or to stop by in person. 

Beighley says, “There’s also a financial wellness bulletin board outside the business administration office, and students can scan the QR code that will give you more information on the subject matter.”

Along with this workshop, refreshments will be provided, students will be entered into a Pitt-themed gift basket raffle, and will also have the ability to receive 10 OCC credits.

For more information, please contact Joel Philistin at jop131@pitt.edu or Brian Beighley bjb74@pitt.edu.