It’s a question many parents of preteen or teen children have asked themselves: How can my son or daughter get a quality university education without taking on long-term debt? Last fall, Trinity Western alumnus Paul Lermitte (’80, ’82) spoke to parents on how to help their prospective students finance a TWU education—and be debt free within three years of graduating.
As parents, Lermitte said, we want our children “to have an amazing university experience—one that’s going to create life values.” The former TWU alumnus and his wife Jan (’80) were also TWU parents, who didn’t just write a tuition cheque but expected their sons to contribute to their own educations. “Students need work experience not only to help them pay their tuition,” Lermitte said, “but also because future employers will look at what they’ve been doing over the course of the university years.”
A seasoned financial planner with over 30 years’ experience in the financial services industry, Lermitte is the author of a series of books on financial literacy for children, teens, and young adults.
He is as passionate about wise stewardship of financial resources as he is about the educational experience TWU offers. “This is a life experience, as students wean themselves from their parents and get into the life God has meant for them,” Lermitte said.