Students were able to improve their financial literacy and wellness during last month’s Financial Wellness Week — a joint effort between the SGA and the Multicultural Involvement & Community Advocacy, said Shabnam Ahmed, vice president of academic affairs.

Financial Wellness Week was the first of its kind and began on April 25 — aiming to help students succeed financially by promoting various on-campus resources, Ahmed said. The week also included a panel discussion, as well as a screening of the financial film “The Big Short.”

Even though financial literacy is not an explicit part of her job description, it has historically been a part of the vice president of academic affairs position, Ahmed said. Her primary goal was to promote dialogue for financial wellness, she said

“Affordability access has always been a big priority for the SGA and it’s always manifested itself through financial wellness,” the junior individual studies major said. “This year I was very gung ho about bringing awareness to this topic.”

In a 2012 National Financial Capability Study by Inceptia, out of 962 first-year students surveyed from five universities across the United States, 0 percent scored an “A” in an assessment of financial literacy, according to a Student Government Association resolution establishing Financial Wellness Week. Two-thirds of the students surveyed scored either a “D” or “F” in the category.

A February 2016 survey conducted by the SGA Academic Affairs Committee found significant student interest in events and discussions relating to financial literacy, according to the resolution — including various topics of personal finance, global economics and finance for first-generation college students.

April is also national financial literacymonth, which is why the SGA decided to have the week in April, said Michael Biondi, an SGA representative of the School of Behavioral and Social Sciences.

Among the resources that the SGA was promoting during the week were iGrad accounts, said Michael Biondi, an SGA representative and government and politics and French major. This university pays for these accounts — which give students access to tutorials, videos and how-tos on financial-related topics.

“Also, we’re spreading awareness on the library’s Launch Textbook Affordability Project,” Biondi said. “The library’s [getting] a lot of open-source textbooks and finding lower cost textbooks mostly for popular classes.”

Open-source textbooks are created under a license that allows users to download, use and often adapt them for free, according to a February Diamondback article. Teachers can then choose which chapters they want their students to read and include videos, photos and quizzes along with the material.

On the week’s first day, SGA and MICA co-sponsored a panel called ‘Fiscal Firsts,’ featuring six students who were the first in their families to go to college. The panel was moderated by junior marketing major Gabe Fernandez, a finance intern at MICA.

“There usually is a pity-based stigma that comes with first generation college students or college students that are deemed to be from a lower income area, just because it’s always tough to even talk about that background,” Fernandez said, who is also a first-generation college student. “It might require swallowing some pride.”

Fernandez said what struck him most from the panel discussion was a conversation about trying to budget — notably when one panelist illustrated how difficult is is to maintain a budget when the money is supposed to cover expenses that can be impossible to predict, such as a family member’s medical bills or repair costs that may come up unexpectedly.

“At that point, it’s no longer budgeting, it’s just kind of keeping out of the red,” Fernandez said.

Although some of the guest speakers who were supposed to be part of the week couldn’t make it, Ahmed said she is happy about the relationships that were formed during the process.

“We did get a couple people that couldn’t be a part of this week for different reasons but because we … we built those relationships in effort to make this week, I think we can come back next year even stronger,” Ahmed said.