The first time Shannon Walston heard about the Family Financial Planning Certificate, a seven-course certificate and minor program in the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences that prepares students for careers in family finance, she wasn’t impressed.

“I thought, ‘That sounds like good information for a person to have for themselves,’ but I didn’t see how it could benefit an entire community,” she says.

But after doing a little research and talking with FCS administrators, Walston began to see it as a powerful complement to her Consumer Sciences major.

“There is a financial element to Consumer Sciences that I can use to a greater degree now,” she says. “Young adults need help with financial literacy. We’re just taking our first steps into adulthood, and we’re so quick to be given credit cards and loans. We need to be able to manage them to be a responsible adult.

“But older people need help, too. When I told my parents that I was interested in adding the FFP minor, they said, “Oh good, you can teach us now.’  You can lift up a whole community by teaching people how to manage their finances.”

This summer, Walston, of Fuquay Varina, became the first student at N.C. A&T to complete the certificate, which puts her in elite company. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, family financial planning is a highly sought-after degree, with job prospects growing at rates higher than the national average.

It is also a field that is seeking to diversify; in 2017, just 23% of all planners were women and only 3.5% were African American or Latino, according to the Certified Financial Planner® Board of Standards, the national group with which N.C. A&T’s program is affiliated.

Walston sees opportunity in those statistics.

“I knew that there were just a handful of African American women who were planners, and that was another reason that I wanted to do it – to help break that barrier,” she said.

Although new to family financial planning, Walston is a seasoned pro at being an Aggie. After participating in the Research Apprenticeship Program (RAP) in the College of Agriculture her junior year of high school, she knew that A&T was her first choice of college. Here, she has had two research assistant positions with CAES professors and an internship with a local financial planner. She is also a polished presenter; this past spring, her poster presentation won first place at the Association of Research Directors conference, and again at the Undergraduate Research Symposium.

Now, she’ll rest a few weeks, and then take her Aggie Pride into a financial field.

“I’ve always been good with saving money,” she says. “But investing, managing credit, taxes, retirement – those are the things I’ll take with me into the future.”