Sep. 11, 2020
CWU Partners with Edquity Inc. to Help Students Remain in School
Central Washington University’s College of Business (CB) is partnering with Edquity Inc. to help students find emergency resources to address food, housing, and other insecurities in an effort to help them stay in school.
The new collaboration will allow CWU students to download a free app from the CB website, which directs them to information about food and financial resources, housing, childcare, legal support, and job opportunities.
“Once they enroll, using their iPhone or Android, and they select CWU, they receive custom information,” explained Edquity Chief Operations Officer A.T. McWilliams. “Part of the reason for working with your administration is to make sure we have the right events and resources—anything that’s timely and relevant to the students at CWU.”
Local resources are supplemented by thousands of additional pertinent listings gathered from a nationwide Edquity database. CB was introduced to Edquity by corporate partner BECU, which sponsors the college’s Emergency Grant fund.
“We knew immediately that Edquity offered a valuable service to our students,” CB Dean Jeffrey Stinson said. “First, the app supports students before, in, and through a financial crisis. With earlier intervention, we can avoid an escalation in a crisis, link a student with appropriate support resources, and increase their chance of retention and graduation.”
Based on a 2019 report by the Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice at Temple University, 60 percent of college students had experienced food insecurity within the past 30 days or housing insecurity within the last year.
For students who aren’t experiencing hardship, the Edquity app also offers budgeting tools to help them save and improve their overall financial situation, in support of students learning basic personal financial management skills.
“The goal is to teach students to manage their budgets such that they can avoid recurring financial crises,” Stinson said. “We believe Edquity will be a huge benefit to our students.”