TAMPA – The University of South Florida Muma College of Business community recently celebrated the launch of the Grow Financial Literacy and Planning Clinic, a new initiative dedicated to expanding access to financial education and teaching students and the local community the fundamentals of personal financial planning.
Leaders, faculty, partners and student financial coaches came together to honor the clinic’s mission to empower individuals through financial literacy and personalized planning support.
Established in partnership with Grow Financial Federal Credit Union, the clinic provides student trainers with hands-on experience and helps community members address important financial topics, including budgeting, saving, credit management and long-term financial planning.
Photo by Sadie Stetson, USF Muma College of Business
Photo by Elizabeth L. Brown, USF Muma College of Business
The clinic is housed at USF’s Kate Tiedemann School of Business and Finance and partners with several USF organizations and programs, including Bull2Bull, a peer-to-peer financial education program, and the College of Education’s Gus A. Stavros Center for Free Enterprise and Economic Education, which hosts workshops for teachers to integrate financial literacy into the K-12 curriculum.
Local high school educators recently participated in the summer workshop “Empowering High School Educators: A Three-Day Institute for Teaching Personal Finance,” held June 24-26 at the Stavros Center, where the clinic’s student trainers along with Stavros Center master teachers presented several topics.
“When we invest in teachers, we multiply our impact. Every educator who leaves our summer institute with greater confidence in teaching personal finance has the potential to impact hundreds of students each year,” said Peter Trakas, director of the Gus A. Stavros Center for Free Enterprise and Economic Education.
Photos by Alexander Ponder, USF College of Education
Since the clinic launched in spring 2026, student financial coaches have conducted educational workshops in USF and high school classrooms on topics such as budgeting, debt management, credit and loans.
The student trainer-led roadshow will continue this fall. Local high school teachers or community organizations can request that one of the students’ financial coaches come in and lead a financial literacy workshop.
“What’s really exciting about this program is that we can provide a valuable service to the community and it provides a fantastic experiential learning opportunity for our personal financial planning students,” said Tim Greer, director of the personal financial planning program at USF.
Supporters emphasized the importance of accessible financial education and the impact the clinic will have on students and the Tampa Bay community.
Photos by Sadie Stetson, USF Muma College of Business
“Our goal is to make things grow, and when we think about how to help people grow their financial lives, it’s really about their spending habits, their saving habits, and what does credit mean?” said Thomas Feint, CEO of Grow Financial.
The students’ coaches said it was worth going into the classroom to teach the basics of financial planning.
“My biggest takeaway was that students turned to me after the presentations and told me that what we talked to them about really changed their lives and influenced their financial literacy,” said Neil Foley, a student financial coach.
https://www.usf.edu/business/news/2026/07-10-usf-grow-financial-literacy-planning-clinic-teaches-smart-money-habits.aspx
