RUSTON, La. – Louisiana Tech Athletics partnered with Origin Bank for its annual financial literacy training for student-athletes Tuesday night in the Waggonner Room of the Thomas Assembly Center.
 
This marks the eighth straight year for the seminar. It was organized by the Louisiana Tech Academic Resource Center who joined forces with Origin Bank each of the past three years.
 
"These are the type of life skills training seminars that we want to offer to our student-athletes in order to help them better prepare for life during and after college," said LA Tech VP and Director of Athletics Eric Wood. "A big part of our mission is to better prepare our student-athletes to be well equipped to compete in life once they are done with their college education.
 
"I appreciate our academic resource staff and our friends at Origin Bank working hard to make this an educational opportunity for those who wanted to take advantage of it."
 
In addition to Tuesday night's seminar, Louisiana Tech student-athletes also have access to online financial literacy trainings throughout the year as part of this life skills opportunity.
 
"It covered the importance of building credit and budgeting and these types of things that most students don't think about early in their college careers. Then it just hits you," said LA Tech Athletic Academic Advisor Ryan Amodei.
 
Origin Bank representatives Bruce Rushing and Matt Barker spoke with LA Tech student-athletes about various financial topics, including credit reports, credit cards, bank accounts, budgeting, and more. Rushing and Barker also answered student-athletes' questions throughout the training.  
 
"Tonight was a really good example of two experts in the financial industry explaining the importance of these areas while answering some questions," Amodei said. "They are both Tech graduates. They have a couple of years of banking under their belt. They understand what it's like to be a college student and the struggles that happen financially and how to best approach it."
 
The financial literacy training was put together to help student-athletes prepare for the transition out of college.
 
"Finance is a pretty big part of what you're going to do," said cross country graduate student Austin Ballow. "It's something to be responsible about because it's big deal and it's going to decide how your life goes. It's going to affect the decisions you make, so you might as well be educated about it."
 
Ballow hopes all Louisiana Tech students can have the opportunity to learn more about financial literacy. He took a required class on the topic from Dr. John Easley, whom Ballow said went above and beyond in helping him learn more about the topic.
 
Ballow said one of the main points he learned during Tuesday's training was how an individual's credit score affects not only getting a loan, but also how it has an impact on getting a job and applying for housing.
 
Rushing said it is important for individuals to live within their means and not overspend.
 
"No one wants to live paycheck to paycheck," Rushing said. "Financial pressure puts stress on you. If you have stress on you, that is going to affect your attitude throughout a day-to-day basis. It is going to affect how you treat other people and how other people may treat you. I would just say to live within your means, have a budget and stick to it. Be disciplined with your finances."
 
Amodei said he was pleased with the engagement from the student-athletes in attendance.
 
"I was really pleased with their involvement. They weren't afraid to ask questions," Amodei said. "I think they learned a lot. I was very pleased with how it went."