Posted By Mark Scarp

SABEW Staff Report

COLUMBIA, Mo., Aug. 31 – Nine journalism students have been named as SABEW/NEFE fellows in personal finance. The students, who range from sophomore to a second-year grad student, will blog on a variety of topics of interest to college-age students.

This is the second semester that the Denver-based National Endowment for Financial Education has sponsored students to write student-to-student blogs about the financial issues that face college students, especially during a recession.  The group will be supervised by SABEW Chair Marty Steffens.

The team will began producing work in early September.  The blog posts will cover topics ranging from how to negotiate finances with apartment mates; student loans and scholarships; saving and investing, to saving for study aboard. The multimedia blog will be posted on NEFE’s CashCourse.org site, accessible to students at 300 U.S. colleges, as well as on SABEW.org.  This year, the blog posts will also be linked from USAToday.com.

“Students are being urged to write from their own experience, and add in experts,” says Steffens.  The students will be producing videos and podcasts as well as written story/blogs.

Last spring, Christie Roshau, a student from Arizona State University, contributed blogs to NEFE as part of a pilot project.

The Missouri bloggers and their topics are:

•   Trey Conklin, senior, Kansas City, Mo. Blogging focus: Planning for grad school, apartment financial horror stories.

• Deron Dalton, junior, Kansas City, Mo. Blogging focus: Paying for college with scholarships. Economics of dorm life. Filling out FAFSA. Diversity issues. Dealing with parent finance issues.

• Andrew Denny, fifth-year senior, Kansas City, Mo. Blogging focus: When money is tight, job hunting, consolidating student loans.

• Theo Keith, senior, Saginaw, Mich. Blogging focus: Saving and investing while in college, evaluating paid vs. unpaid internships.

• Robert W. Johnson, grad student and Army veteran, Lakewood Ranch, Fla. Blogging focus: Life on the GI Bill, finances for older students.

• Alex Missick, junior. Bahamas. Blogging focus: Special issues for international students, such as establishing credit and working.
• Jessie Smith, senior. Indianapolis, Ind. Blogging focus: When parents finances imperil your education. Life as a financially independent student.
• Lauren Steffens, sophomore, Columbia, Mo. Blogging focus: My first apartment, pledging a sorority and not spending a fortune. Planning for study abroad.
• Lauren Walsh, grad student, St. Louis, Mo.  Blogging focus: Credit cards. Looking ahead to expenses after graduation, job choices and life as a couple.