| |  |  | | | Rounding Out Tomorrow's Leaders | | | Manystudents leave college with the basic knowledge, skills, and abilitiesto begin their careers, but lack knowledge in key areas of life such asthe best way to finance a house or how to manage debt. The latter isperhaps the most troubling considering undergraduate student loan debtaveraged $19,000 in the 2003-04 academic year according toCollegeBoard's 2005 Trends in Student Aid ($26,200 privatefor-profit, $16,000 private non-profit, and $10,000 public).Moreover, the average undergraduate had a credit card balance of$2,169, according to a 2004 survey by student lender Nellie Mae, withonly 21% of students paying off their balances each month. Collegegraduates learn critical financial and risk management knowledge fromtheir families and friends, who typically do not possess currentexpertise, or from a professional, who often has incentive to drivegrads to the best product or service for the professional and not theclient, or through the school of hard knocks where life’s lessons comeat the greatest cost. What students need most at this stage in theirlives is a trusted advisor they can count on to deliver complete,accurate, current, and objective consumer information. This is themission of Crosswise Learning. | | |  | |
