257 YES, THERE’S LIFE AFTER COLLEGE, BUT WILL THERE BE MONEY?

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Feb. 12, 2007
EDITORIAL CONTACT: Gina Logue, 615-898-5081

Adult Learners Conference to Show Older Students How to Maximize Finances

(MURFREESBORO) – “From Student Poverty to Financial Security: Planning to Get from Here to There” is the theme of the 14th annual Adult Learning in Tennessee Conference Feb. 22-23 on the MTSU campus.
This year’s gathering, which is geared each year to college students age 25 and older, will focus on giving “both adult students and the educational professionals who work with them some new insights about preparing for financial security after graduation,” according to conference literature.
The luncheon and keynote speaker Thursday, Feb. 22 will be Dallas Nichols Ruddell, a 1996 alumna who had attended MTSU in 1983 and dropped out in order to get married. Upon returning to MTSU, Ruddell, then a single mom, lived on food stamps and decorated her family housing apartment with carpet she obtained at a local mall. After graduating with a degree in psychology, Ruddell moved to the San Francisco area, where she recruits and trains insurance agents and financial advisers.
Following Ruddell’s address, participants may take advantage of three informative workshops: “Define Your Dreams” with Dallas Ruddell’s husband, Nicholas Ruddell, an award-winning sales and marketing executive and business development specialist; “Improving Financial Outcomes for Adult Learners through Group Advocacy” with Carol Giardina, associate director of admissions at Augusta State University; and “Learning How to Handle Debt” with Dr. Jeannie Harrington, associate professor of accounting at MTSU.
Workshops slated for Friday, Feb. 23, are “Bridging the Funding Gaps in Higher Education: Oh, Where, Oh, Where Did My Money Go?” with Meredith Anne Higgs, assistant professor of developmental mathematics at MTSU, and “How to Read and Repair Your Credit Report” with Dallas Ruddell. At the Friday brunch, scheduled for 10:30, Rudell and the participants will review the lessons of the conference.
“Student activity fee funds have made it possible for 20 students to attend and have the registration fee waived,” Dr. Carol Ann Baily, director of the Adult Services Center, says.
Registration will begin at 11:30 a.m. Thursday in the Tom H. Jackson Building, formerly Alumni Hall. For more information about the conference, contact the Adult Services Center at 615-898-5989 or go to http://www.mtsu.edu/~owls/conf.htm.
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