Press Release  The Massachusetts State Treasurer's Office of Economic Empowerment Partners with Money Experience to Offer Free Financial Literacy Course To Local Community Colleges

Cambridge — The Massachusetts State Treasurer's Office of Economic Empowerment (OEE) has partnered with Money Experience, the innovative edtech company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to offer a free financial literacy course to 15 community colleges throughout the state. Participating colleges will receive access to Money Experience's Essentials course, which will be available for a classroom setting or in a self-paced virtual format.

Office of the State Treasurer and Receiver General of Massachusetts State Treasurer Deborah Goldberg created the Office of Economic Empowerment in 2014. Its mission is to implement a range of economic empowerment initiatives that include closing the racial and gender wage gap, prioritizing racial equity, increasing access to financial education, improving college affordability, and investing in STEM careers and education. In keeping with OEE's stated goals, this new program provides a pathway for students to improve their financial futures. By providing free access to financial education, OEE seeks to provide access to tools and resources that help level the economic playing field.

"People of all ages and backgrounds need the skills required to navigate today's financial environment," said State Treasurer Deborah B. Goldberg. "By partnering with Money Experience, we will be able to offer a critical resource to local community college students that will empower them to budget, save, invest and be fiscally healthy."

"Money Experience is an innovative tool that will help our community college students map out their financial futures and plan for both the expected and unexpected events in their lives. This tool also serves as a great opportunity to highlight the tremendous value that a community college education offers Massachusetts residents," said Tom Sannicandro, Director of the Massachusetts Association of Community Colleges (MACC). "We are grateful for Treasurer Goldberg's work on critical economic empowerment initiatives like this and appreciate this important partnership."

Money Experience Essentials offers a unique, engaging way to teach online financial education. Using an immersive life simulator and graphic novel, its personalized approach focuses on quality of life and personal priorities, and helps students gain perspective on how their lifestyle and financial choices will impact their futures. Students first set priorities for each phase of life and then make a variety of career, personal, and lifestyle choices. As each choice is made, they'll see how it aligns with their priorities, impacts their quality of life and influences their finances. The financial model uses real life data to calculate the entire life arc of a person's financial decisions including average salaries for different jobs, rents in different cities, interest rates, cost of living and more.

"As a Massachusetts based company, we're thrilled to have the Office of Economic Empowerment on board as a customer. By adding Money Experience to its list of state-approved vendors, the OEE is able to bring Essentials to so many students in our community," said Jeet Singh, founder and CEO at Money Experience. "We're firm believers that life skills are a critical part of a young person's education. Understanding how money works in life is vital when planning for the future, and we want to help each and every student create a future that aligns with their own personal needs, goals and priorities."

Money Experience is deeply rooted in Massachusetts, is in compliance with the Massachusetts Student Data Privacy Agreement, and has worked with a number of organizations – from high schools and colleges to non-profits and financial institutions – to help increase financial literacy across the state and position the next generation of residents for financial success.

All Massachusetts community colleges that would like access to the course can submit an application on the OEE's website. Licenses are distributed on a rolling basis through April 30, 2022.

About MACC
MACC represents the fifteen Massachusetts Community Colleges and works on behalf of the Presidents and their local Boards of Trustees to advocate, communicate, and collaborate in order to strengthen community colleges for the benefit of students, communities, and the Commonwealth.

About The Massachusetts State Treasurer's Office of Economic Empowerment
On her first day in office, Treasurer Goldberg created the Office of Economic Empowerment, led by a deputy treasurer, with the deliberate goal of implementing a range of economic empowerment initiatives that include closing the race and gender wage gap, addressing racial equity, increasing access to financial education, improving college affordability, and investing in STEM careers and education.

About Money Experience
Part of the family of companies founded by noted Boston tech entrepreneurs Jeet Singh and Joe Chung, Money Experience is an educational technology company addressing the need for personal finance education among young people and adults. Money Experience is headquartered at One Kendall Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts. https://www.moneyexperience.com/

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