Altruistic Professionalism: Why Do College Students Become Peer Financial Mentors?

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• Altruistic Professionalism:Why Do College Students Become Peer Financial Mentors?
• Zachary W. Taylor (bio), Jodi Kaus (bio), Tristia Kayser (bio), Sara Ray (bio), Mario Villa (bio), and Karla Weber (bio)

For the past several decades, many institutions of higher education have facilitated financial wellness programs (Britt et al., 2015; Taylor, 2022). As part of these programs, college students have worked as peer financial mentors (PFMs) to counsel their peers regarding financial wellness and literacy topics, such as budgeting, understanding credit, and managing student loans (Britt et al., 2015; Goetz et al., 2011; Schuman et al., 2023). However, in recent years, it has become increasingly difficult for colleges and universities to hire student workers, as many students have opted for jobs that are more flexible, pay more, or allow them to perform different types of work (Zahneis, 2022).

Compounding this issue is research that has demonstrated the difficulty of hiring and training qualified college students who possess the soft skills, growth mindset, and professionalism to work as peer mentors (Black & Taylor, 2018; Taylor & Black, 2018). Related work in financial wellness has found that it may be even more difficult to hire and train these students to mentor their peers on financial matters, given that peer financial mentors need the same soft skills as academic mentors, along with financial acumen and experience (Schuman et al., 2023; Taylor, Kayser, Villa, Martinez, et al., 2021). As a result, institutions of higher education can benefit greatly from research that explores the motivations for why college students seek work on campus and what institutions can do to recruit and retain student workers, especially those with unique skill sets required by financial wellness programs.

However, despite the difficulty of recruiting and retaining peer mentors with adequate financial knowledge and persistent gaps in hiring (Schuman et al., 2023; Taylor, Kayser, Villa, Burnett, et al., 2021), no research has emerged that articulates why PFMs pursue work on campus, especially when off-campus positions likely pay more and could lead to a professional internship or full-time employment (Zahneis, 2022). To date, little is known about how peer financial wellness programs operate and maintain student staffing, necessitating this study. [End Page 449] In this study, we engaged with 54 peer financial mentors from seven institutions of higher education across the US through a qualitative inquiry using a Maslowian (1954) lens. Per Maslow's (1954) theory, humans have five tiers of needs—physiological, safety and security, belongingness, esteem, and self-actualization—and human behavior, including the pursuit of work toward self-sustenance, is predicated on these needs. As a result, we framed college students' pursuit of work on campus, specifically in peer financial mentoring, using Maslow's theory to answer the following research question and sub-question:

RQ1. Why do college students pursue work as peer financial mentors?

Sub-RQ1. Per Maslow (1954), where in the hierarchy of needs (i.e., physiological, safety and security, belongingness, esteem, and self-actualization) does this pursuit originate?

By answering these questions, on-campus supervisors and hiring managers will better understand why highly qualified student workers are drawn to working on campus with peers, especially within peer financial mentoring programs. Moreover, recruiting and retaining high-quality PFMs may also lead to improved college student learning outcomes, enhancing college students' sense of financial wellness now and into the future.

METHODS

Describing and Recruiting Peer Financial Mentors

PFMs, a type of college student worker, are typically hired by program managers or supervisors of financial wellness programs housed within financial offices, student affairs units, or other departments within institutions of higher education (Schuman et al., 2023; Taylor, 2022). PFMs are usually paid positions, with most PFMs working no more than 10 hours per week, delivering large group presentations and one-to-one peer financial mentoring sessions (Schuman et al., 2023). Through mutual membership in the Higher Education Financial Wellness Alliance (HEFWA, 2023), the team established connections with seven financial wellness programs employing peer financial mentoring models. It must be noted that all PFMs worked at institutions in suburban-urban or urban areas, potentially limiting the transferability of this work. From these connections, the research team interviewed 54 peer financial mentors between April 2020 and February 2023. The demographics...