and we have everything ready to go.��</p><p>Miller said the financial education component highly benefit participants.</p><p>��In general people go out into the world without knowing about financial literacy

By ALANA LISTOE

Montana Credit Union Network

Devin Kavanagh spent the summer earning four credits needed to complete a community health degree doing an internship with the City of Missoula.� Thanks to a Matched Education Savings Account (MESA) he didn��t have to take out any additional student loans, delayed his graduation date, and got some financial education to boot.

��MESA likely saved me another whole year or at least a half-year of taking loans out, and I didn��t have that overhead of tuition costs this summer,�� Kavanagh said.

MESA is a special matched savings account designed to help people with modest means establish a pattern of regular savings and ultimately earn a post-secondary education at a participating Montana school with less student debt.� The program matches what the participant saves at a rate determined by the school. For Kavanagh that meant for every $1 he saved, the University of Montana contributed $3. In all, he saved the $500 maximum allowed for the University of Montana MESA and earned $1,500 for a total of $2,000, which covered the tuition of his internship credits.

��It was easy,�� he said. ��People often going to school just fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FASFA), but people should know that MESA doesn��t take too much work. I got triple what I put in and that��s a lot.��

Kavanagh said he likes the idea of putting in his own money because it means he��s really invested. And, the required financial education component for the program helped him become more financial savvy and aware of money-related problems to avoid.

Montana Credit Unions for Community Development spearheaded the statewide college savings program in 2010 with help from the Student Assistance Foundation. And, because of support from SAF with the model program, MESA has become the successful program it is today, said Karen Smith, executive director of the Helena-based MCUCD

��We saw a real need to reduce student debt, increase student retention, and supplement the funding,�� Smith said. ��It��s making a different in the lives of students - helping to reduce their stress by taking out fewer student loans and getting them in the habit of saving regularly.��

Smith hopes that someday soon every college and university in Montana has their own MESA program.

The amount of the match differs depending on the participating school. Montana State University is similar to UM matching three to one. � Montana Tech in Butte matches five-to-one, with a maximum match of $2,500. At Gallatin College in Bozeman it��s four-to-one with a $2,000 maximum. In Helena at Carroll College, that number jumps to eight-to-one with a maximum of $4,000.

Missoula Federal Credit Union is one of nine Montana credit unions participating, but that number is quickly growing. These credit unions, which are non-profit financial cooperatives, administer the savings accounts and provide financial coaching for students.

Kyle Miller, financial services representative at the Missoula FCU branch on campus, works with Kavanagh and many other participants.

��It��s easy to start and with one branch right on campus