By Sarah Murphy

Just five years after opening its doors to students, the VCU Financial Success Center by Virginia Credit Union has received prestigious recognition from a national leader in financial counseling, coaching and education.

The center, which was established in 2019 as part of Virginia Commonwealth University's School of Business, was honored recently with the 2024 Outstanding Financial Counseling or Planning Center Award from the Association for Financial Counseling & Planning Education. The nonprofit brings together research, education and professional development to promote high standards, and its award recognizes a counseling or planning center that has demonstrated effectiveness in its local community.

Amy Pridemore, executive director of the VCU center, accepted the award in November at the 2024 AFCPE Symposium in Columbus, Ohio.

"We are such a new center, and yet we are offering really amazing, comprehensive programming," Pridemore said. "It is incredible to be recognized for all of the hard work we have put into this program. We are a team of one full-time staff member, one graduate assistant and eight student coaches. Sometimes, it can feel like we're being stretched in a million different directions. This award is exciting because it demonstrates that what we're doing here is working and paying off."

The award represents the culmination of years of work and collaboration, said Cherry Dale, senior vice president of financial education at Virginia Credit Union, which provided the $5 million gift in 2019 that led to the center's development.

"It's also the realization of the Virginia Credit Union board's vision for the center to be a model, leader and innovator in helping the broader VCU community achieve financial well-being," she said.

The VCU Financial Success Center by Virginia Credit Union was created to promote financial health in the VCU and Richmond communities. At VCU, the center's primary program is peer-to-peer student counseling about budgeting, saving, credit, student loan repayment, career transitions, insurance and investing.

"We found that the peer-to-peer model works really well because these students are going through the same life events and situations," Pridemore said. The student counselors - or financial success coaches, as they are referred to in the center - receive a full semester of training before starting to work with other students.

Since Pridemore joined in August 2022, the center has expanded beyond peer-to-peer coaching. Other initiatives involve inclusion in the First-Year Experience's UNIV 191 courses; a student-athlete program that includes a half-week personal finance conference called VCU SUMMIT; and expanded work with military services students, RecWell and the Office of Student Advocacy.

For the Virginia Credit Union, the center helps deliver important lessons to new generations.

"We view the creation of the VCU Financial Success Center as an extension of our credit union's mission to help people live confidently by ensuring they have the knowledge, tools and resources necessary to make informed financial decisions," Dale said. "The center's leadership, staff and student financial success coaches are also connected to and committed to that mission, and we are so proud of their efforts, impact and success."

Looking ahead, Pridemore hopes to expand the center's offerings to VCU's graduate student population as well as the MCV Campus.

For more information about the center or to make an appointment, visit the center website.