Financial insecurity is a concern for many undergraduate and graduate students. Financial insecurity can impact your learning, academic progress, class attendance, ability to buy required textbooks and materials, and participation in extracurricular activities. These concerns can have considerable impact on your overall mental health. Working additional hours to make ends meet and budgeting for basic needs, all while navigating academic demands and obligations can contribute to chronic stress, lack of sleep, and lower mood.
There are many difficult thoughts and feelings that may come up when you struggle with financial insecurity. You may:
- Feel embarrassed and try to hide that you are struggling.
- Have a sense of inadequacy and struggle to fit in with peers who do not struggle financially.
- Feel a sense of injustice and overwhelm.
- Feel an increased pressure to succeed.
- Downplay or invalidate your feelings by comparing yourself to others who appear to have it worse.
- Feel conflicted about being at Emory or guilt that you might have access to certain resources that your family or people back home do not have access to.
All of these complex thoughts and feelings can be a lot to cope with while you are trying to manage academics, extracurricular activities, and other obligations. Talking to a trusted peer, mentor, staff, faculty, or CAPS therapist, can help you navigate financial struggles and feel less alone. You don’t have to manage everything on your own.
Financial Insecurity
Student Case Management and Interventions Services offers:
Textbook Scholarship Program: The textbook scholarship program offers students with limited financial resources access to book scholarships that can be used to purchase textbooks from Barnes and Noble. Scholarships are available for a limited time at the beginning of each semester and are dispersed on a first-come, first-serve basis.
Emergency Housing: In cases of emergency, students are strongly encouraged to reach out to case management to inquire about available resources. During winter and summer recess, undergraduate students can apply for temporary on-campus housing if they are unable to return home due to financial restrictions or safety concerns or if they are at risk of experiencing homelessness.
Meal Swipe: At the end of spring semester, first year students can donate their swipes to assist students in need. Students experiencing food insecurity are eligible to receive a limited number of emergency swipes as well as a food consultation to access more resources.
Eagle Food Co-Op: A free resource to promote food security and economic justice by providing fresh fruit, vegetables, non-perishable food items and toiletries. This resource is available to all Emory students and is located at Bread Coffeehouse, 1227 Clifton Rd., Atlanta, GA 30307. For more information please email Amanda.Trubetskoy@emory.edu.
Other Food Assistance Options: For students in need of crisis support for other food assistance options, students are encouraged to reach out to case management to ensure their individual food insecurity needs are met.
To access these services, fill out this form, which can be found on the Student Case Management and Interventions Services website.
There are also resources available to those who would like to learn more about financial literacy, including topics like budgeting, loan repayment, and creditworthiness.
https://www.studentaid.emory.edu/undergraduate/manage/financial-literacy/index.html
https://www.studentaid.emory.edu/undergraduate/manage/financial-literacy/my-money/resources.html
Emory also has a list of other resources, programs, and scholarships available to students of families experiencing financial hardship. This list specifically names resources for those who are first generation, low-income students and this program outlines programs and policies that support students experiencing homelessness.
https://news.emory.edu/stories/2020/11/er_first_gen_low_income_students/campus.html
Contact and Hours of Operation
Address: 1462 Clifton Road, Suite 235, Atlanta, GA 30322
Phone: 404-727-7450
Fax: 404-727-2906
Crisis Consultation: Call 404-727-7450
Hours of Operation: 8:30-5:00, Monday-Friday
PLEASE NOTE: If Emory University is closed due to weather or other emergency, then CAPS is also closed. In such circumstances, students will be contacted to reschedule appointments once the university reopens.