Personal Money Management Part of Minnesota Student Leadership Summit

MAPLE GROVE, MN--(Marketwired - Oct 31, 2013) - For the fifth consecutive year TopLine Federal Credit Union financial experts were invited to lead personal money management educational sessions at the Minnesota Student Leadership Summit, held in Bloomington, Minnesota.

Every October over 300 student leaders from over 100 communities across the state come together for the Minnesota Student Leadership Summit. The summit brings together students from the 47 two-year public community and technical college campuses, who were selected as representatives by their peers, to provide them with the training that will make them tomorrow's leaders. The four-day conference is designed to help students grow personally and professionally, and to take on the role of student advocate by learning new ideas and trends to bring back to their campuses.

These elected student leaders developed new leadership skills, refined existing ones and built a network with other student leaders across the state. Student leaders attended sessions on goal setting, personal financial management, crucial conversations, running an effective meeting, recruitment and retention of student leaders, scholarships, and researching legislation, just to name a few.

To get the students in the mindset of personal finance, a roundtable session was held by Justin Klander, Executive Director for the Minnesota State College Student Association. This session encouraged student leaders to discuss the tools and resources college students need to make sound financial decisions and to better prepare for a life of financial stability. "We are excited to offer personal development workshops to our student leaders for years now. MSCSA is always promoting financial literacy relating to the funding of a college education. We are confident that our ongoing partnership with TopLine for the last five years has allowed us to provide a consistent message on financial literacy to the future workforce of Minnesota. TopLine's sessions at our annual Summit develop students' personal finance knowledge and help them to grow as leaders by giving them the tools for financial stability that could last them a lifetime," says Justin Klander.

TopLine's sessions, "The Real World of Personal Money Management," built on the themes from the roundtable by helping students better understand how to manage finances, including the importance of saving and paying yourself first, how to use credit wisely; what a credit score means, how it affects you and how to build and maintain a good score; where to obtain a copy of a credit report and how to read it; budgeting tips; and strategies on how to reduce debt and prevent identity theft. The interactive sessions included thought-provoking questions with real life examples to show students how their actions today can have an impact on future financial options.

"A special thanks goes to MSCSA for inviting us again to speak on the importance of personal money management," says Vicki Erickson, Presenter and Assistant Vice President of Marketing, TopLine Federal Credit Union. "We are committed to improving financial literacy and developing personal money management skills for all ages, which is why the Minnesota Student Leadership Summit was an excellent venue to allow us to support student leaders who are committed to their own professional growth and development, and to improving their financial well-being, knowing that what they learned will also be shared with other students on their respective campuses."

The Minnesota State College Student Association (MSCSA) is an association of the Minnesota public two-year college students, which works to ensure accessible, quality, and affordable public higher education while providing students with representation, leadership development, and communication across the state.

The Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MnSCU) system is comprised of 31 state universities and community and technical colleges serving the higher education needs of Minnesota, and is the largest single provider of higher education in the state. The colleges and universities operate 54 campuses in 47 communities and serve 250,000 students per year in credit-based courses. Overall, the system produces about 33,500 graduates each year. In addition to credit-based courses, the system offers customized training programs that serve about 153,200 employees from 6,000 Minnesota businesses each year.

TopLine Federal Credit Union, a Twin Cities-based credit union, is Minnesota's 13^th largest, with assets of more than $340 million. Established in 1935, the not-for-profit cooperative offers a complete line of financial services, as well as auto and home insurance, from its five locations -- in Bloomington, Brooklyn Park, Maple Grove, Plymouth and in St. Paul's Como Park -- as well as by phone and online at www.TopLinecu.com. Membership is available to anyone who lives, works, worships, attends school or volunteers in Anoka, Carver, Dakota, Hennepin, Ramsey, Scott or Washington Counties and their immediate family members.