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Financial Fitness Zone: Earn to Learn offers financial help for students

Posted at 5:43 AM, Oct 20, 2016
and last updated 2016-10-20 08:43:43-04

We love Arizona. The sun shines bright. The opportunities are wide open and the sky is the limit for our kids. When it comes to education, though, and funding, those options can dim pretty quickly.

The depressing numbers eclipsing potential opportunities are these:

It takes close to $38,000 to get a bachelor’s degree in this country and student borrowers leave school with most of that amount strapped to their backs in the form of student loan debt.

Enter “Earn to Learn.”

“These students are investing in themselves.”

Kate Hoffman created Earn to Learn three and a half years ago to clear up some of the ominous clouds of financial ruin that these students are facing.

It’s a non-profit that offers students the chance to save money; up to $500 per year can turn into $4,000 just by learning to be financially self-sufficient.

It’s an idea that’s really catching on.

“Universities. university systems. Community Colleges, community college systems from all over the country,” are looking at Earn to Learn says Hoffman.

As of right now, though, only Arizona’s big three the UofA, ASU and NAU offer the program and there’s a catch.

The funds are needs-based, meaning a family of four can’t make more than twice the federal poverty level or just under $50,000 per year in order to take advantage.

Kate Hoffman told me that anyone who is anywhere close to qualifying should consider this as a legitimate option for school funding.

“This is really changing the trajectory of these students' lives in terms of their confidence level with their financial house, right?”

 To learn more about Earn to Learn visit their website HERE.