By requiring college students to take a personal finance class, we can increase financial literacy of young adults to help them to manage their current and future finances.

Research has shown that college students in the US have increasingly low levels of personal financial literacy, which then spills into making poor current and future financial decisions. Whether it's managing debt, filing taxes, investing, or even just making a simple budget, college students can benefit greatly from having a personal finance course. 

What's more- ensuring that all students learn about personal finance helps to minimize the wealth gap among students of color and women. Research studies within the past ten years have shown that even in this day and age, students of color and females have significantly lower levels of knowledge regarding financial knowledge, which inadvertently helps to keep glass ceilings in place. Advocating for equal pay is just the beginning of helping to close the wealth gap between genders, and ensuring that all genders are taught how to manage money is the vital next step.  

This is why we're asking Indiana University and its branches to add a required course for personal finance. Currently, students can take the class as an elective but most aren't encouraged to take it for this reason because it doesn't necessarily go towards their degree. However, we recognize that learning these life-long skills extend far beyond the classrooms and the school needs to show it's support for bettering student's financial education to help set them up for a successful future.