In Students' Best Interests

The Magazine of the Penn State Alumni Association

November, 2021

tudent debt in the U.S. stands at a staggering $1.6 trillion and grows every year. The weight of that burden on future graduates became apparent to Nancy Goodman when she was mentoring high school students, and it inspired her to launch a web-based nonprofit, College Money Matters, to help students and their families understand how to take on less debt to pay for their education.

Goodman ’72 Lib worked at Citibank for over 30 years in a variety of roles. She ran bank branches, worked in the credit card division, and opened new consumer businesses in South Asia. When she retired in 2005, Goodman reached out to her vast network of contacts in finance and higher education to help launch College Money Matters. The organization’s board includes a seasoned high school financial aid adviser, the president of an asset management company, a former American Express executive, and an expert in UX (user experience and interface). “I decided I couldn’t do much about global warming—I’m just one person,” Goodman says, “but I could help students learn to borrow less by providing information now in fun, easy formats that help them avoid financial trouble later.”

All information on the nonprofit’s website and its YouTube channel—which were funded by Goodman, her friends, and family—is free and helps students anticipate the common issues that end up causing them to borrow too much. Its content is based on two years of research with high school students who described what they wanted to know and how they liked to learn: videos, short articles, games, checklists, and quizzes.

Goodman has been working with other nonprofits, and she’s hoping to secure support for College Money Matters from groups committed to financial literacy. —Steve Neumann