WHEELING — Financial responsibility is something many college students end up learning the hard way, but the stress of being constantly broke can be detrimental to someone who should be focused on classwork instead of debt.

At West Virginia Northern Community College, Student Success Coach Joseph Woodley has been helping students get through the minefields of money management through a financial literacy program that is offered for free to anyone who needs help. It may be no surprise that students who learn to budget tend to find success not only in managing their personal finances but also in their academics.

Originally from the village of Freeport on Long Island in New York, Woodley graduated from Ohio Christian University, and his career path brought him to WVNCC a little over a year ago by way of the Buckeye State.

“I lived in Columbus for about 24 years,” Woodley said. “I was a leadership and team development specialist, so I worked with companies — developing their leaders and helping to define goals, organizing their teams and working on their communication skills and interpersonal skills.”

Woodley is also an author who has written a number of books on leadership and character development. After about 15 years working as a development specialist, Woodley came to WVNCC as a student success coach — his first gig in education.

Helping guide students through various challenges, Woodley said he sees financial struggles as one of the prevailing obstacles for many students.

“What we began discovering was that a lot of students were not as financially savvy about how to utilize their money,” Woodley said. “So we decided that we wanted to develop a program to help students be able to navigate the challenge of financial life in and out of school.”

The financial literacy program focuses on understanding budgeting, income and expenditures, credit card uses and credit card debt, understanding interest rates, managing financial aid and refunds, loan repayments, building credit, how to invest money, and other important aspects of sound personal financial management.

A strictly voluntary program, the offering helps enhance their financial wellbeing through basic budgeting, logging of expenditures, trimming extra expenses like eating out and carefree “swiping” of debit cards without monitoring how much money is actually being spent. The program evaluates wants versus needs, clothing fashion versus function and general practicality.

Woodley said many students are surprised at how much money can be saved each month or even every week after they cut down costs of recurring subscriptions, paid apps, expensive plans and accounts with utility providers that can be switched to more affordable providers. They just need to learn to buckle down.

And when they finally have that extra cash at the end of the month, Woodley said he encourages them to manage that pool of money wisely, as well.

“I tell them to invest in themselves and invest in their future,” Woodley said.

Some students get distracted with the challenges of making ends meet, and keeping finances in check gives them peace of mind and allows them to focus more on course work, according to Woodley, who said he would love institutions of higher learning to create a curriculum that puts more of an emphasis on financial literacy.

“Every student that I work with, I reach out to them and let them know that there’s an opportunity to sit down and to do financial literacy,” he said. “Every student has an opportunity to participate.”

Participants in WVNCC’s financial literacy program get help in discovering ways to trim their expenses in many ways — from prioritizing bills to monitoring their spending more closely.

“Something as simple as that can radically change a student’s financial situation,” Woodley said, noting that his challenge is to take fiscally prudent concepts and make students view them in ways that are applicable to their life — then they tend to get it. “You have to see it in practical terms. It’s not just looking at the budget and saying ‘let’s just balance these numbers.’ It’s working with them to identify resources that are going to enable them to be more financially stable.”

Woodley said financial literacy is not just something that’s missing from the lives of young adults, it’s often something that’s lacking in society as a whole.

“I’d also like to see this program offered as part of a community outreach,” Woodley noted. “Staff and faculty are welcome to participate, because we’re a community.”

As a student success coach, Woodley has to offer help through an approach where students are willing to accept it — no matter how hard of a pill it may be to swallow.

“It is a truly cohesive plan that we hope empowers students to be more financially literate,” Woodley said. “I don’t preach to them — but they want to know that you genuinely care about them. Then they’re going to start listening.”

Financial literacy is not typically something that parents routinely teach their children, and it’s not part of the traditional curriculum in middle school and high school. Young adults in college are at a time in life when they have to face additional fiscal responsibility, and more often than not, learning about the pitfalls of poor financial management turns into a motivating factor that lights a fire under students to learn how to better manage their money.

Woodley said there is a give and take in most cases — students don’t always want to trim out every $5 daily premium coffee or paid online streaming service, and that’s OK. He helps them take steps, set goals and decide certain things they can give up to help trim expenses. He also follows up with them to see how things are going.

Even if parents tried to teach their children aspects of financial literacy, there’s a chance they may not want to listen. Sometimes listening to someone from an objective perspective is exactly what they need, and at WVNCC, that’s what is available if they want the help.

“We’re preparing them for life,” Woodley said.