(l to r) Tai Beauchamp, TV Personality & Lifestyle Expert; Alicia Alston, Vice-President, Global Communications at Prudential Financial; Michelle Ebanks, ESSENCE President; Dani Arps, Interior Designer; Marvet Britto, President and CEO of the Britto Agency; Tiffany “The Budgetnista” Aliche; Dorinda Walker, Director of Consumer Strategy & Key Initiatives Multicultural Marketing, Prudential's U.S. Businesses; ESSENCE Features Editor Lauren Williams. (Photo, Matthew C. Anderson)
(l to r) Tai Beauchamp, TV Personality & Lifestyle Expert; Alicia Alston, Vice-President, Global Communications at Prudential Financial; Michelle Ebanks, ESSENCE President; Dani Arps, Interior Designer; Marvet Britto, President and CEO of the Britto Agency; Tiffany “The Budgetnista” Aliche; Dorinda Walker, Director of Consumer Strategy & Key Initiatives Multicultural Marketing, Prudential’s U.S. Businesses; ESSENCE Features Editor Lauren Williams. (Photo, Matthew C. Anderson)

Officials at ESSENCE Magazine partnered with Prudential Financial, Inc. to help its audience tackle college debt with the most recent installment of its EmpowerU e-learning series, College Debt: Money Lessons Everyone Should Know. Over 40 million Americans have college debt, but student loans are only one piece of their financial puzzle. Through this course, students not only learned how to gain control over their student loans, but also how to master the rest of their money and lay the foundation for a fiscally sound post-college life.

Each installment of ESSENCE’s EmpowerU e-learning series is led by expert instructors. Last month’s course was led by Tiffany “The Budgetnista” Aliche—an award-winning teacher of financial empowerment, who is quickly becoming America’s favorite financial educator. Aliche addressed important financial-related topics such as debt management and reduction, student loan savviness, credit-building tips and more. This month’s installment, You Can Be Frugal and Fabulous!, will be a personal finance course led by Aisha Taylor. Taylor is a financial consultant, best-selling author, entrepreneur, empowerment coach and founder of FNPhenomenal (Frugal n Phenomenal). This course will teach participants to be smart with their money and stay out of crushing debt while they live and build toward the lifestyle that they really want.

In addition, on Friday, November 6, ESSENCE and Prudential hosted a panel discussion entitled, “Money + Power: Must-haves for Prosperous Business Women” held at Apella in New York City. Moderated by ESSENCE Features Editor Lauren Williams, the panel featured leading industry mavens and tastemakers who shared timeless insights with the audience, including: Marvet Britto, President and CEO of the Britto Agency; Tai Beauchamp, TV Personality & Lifestyle Expert; Dani Arps, Interior Designer; and Tiffany “The Budgetnista” Aliche.

For more information on the Empower U e-learning series, visit ESSENCEEmpowerU.com.