The Financial Peer Mentor Program (FPMP) is a completely free student-to-student program that allows mentors and mentees to work together for one semester to organize the mentee’s finances. Mentees learn skills to manage their money, budget it, and save it for the future.
Helping Students as a Mentor
LSBE student Nicole Trettin (pictured above) is an Accounting major and a Healthcare Management minor. She is a mentor within the program and describes it as, “the best thing I have been involved with while at UMD.”
She heard about the program through a friend of hers who wanted to join the program but wanted a friend to join along with her. Nicole thought it was a really cool program, but was still unsure of whether or not she would be accepted. “I had no idea what I was getting myself into but I applied anyways, got interviewed and was accepted into the program.” Nicole is now in her third semester and is working with her fifth mentee.
As a mentor, Nicole was trained through a class and learned how to make this program a wonderful experience for her mentees, not only focusing on finances but also talking about all aspects of a student’s life such as who they are, how they work with others, and where they want to be. “The mentor and the mentee meet for 10 weeks. They meet once a week for about 30-60 minutes talking about subjects such as credit, financial institutions, budgeting, and specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely (SMART) goals.” (Read More)