A new financial literacy program aimed to educate, empower and engage students in managing their finances came to UVM this November.

SALT, created by the American Student Assistance, seeks to make understanding finances an easy, fun and rewarding experience for students, Student Employment Coordinator Mary A. McClements said.

This program strives to help students by allowing them to become financially savvy, helping them to manage loans, giving them the opportunity to ask advice from an expert counselor and providing them with exclusive benefits, such as a large database of job and internship opportunities, McClements said.

 SALT will provide students with personalized guidance about student loans, tools to track and plan their student loans and several interactive online tools and courses.

“Financial literacy can be boring,” McClements said. “These online applications make it fun and engaging.”

She explained that the University’s partnership with SALT allows students to sign up for free and have access to all of the online tools. To sign up, students follow the instructions sent via email Nov. 4.

In the future, McClements said there will be student SALT ambassadors who will be able to help run the program and connect with students on a peer level.

“What you do now with your finances affects choices in your future,” she said.

McClements hopes that students will gain more knowledge about paying off loans because she knows that at a young age, “I could have cared less about saving money.”\First-year Sarah Bullock said she believes the SALT program will allow students to better manage their college loans.

“The SALT program will be beneficial to UVM as it will teach students how to manage their money and pay off loans,” Bullock said.

A SALT team from Boston will be coming to UVM Dec. 9 to help students get more involved with the program.