09-27-2023 Primtime Living - Flipbook - Page 8
8 A Special Advertising Section of Baltimore Sun Media Group | Wednesday, September 27, 2023
FINANCE
Far more than
meets the eye!
University of Maryland
Extension
By Margit B. Weisgal, Contributing Writer
L
ike most state universities, the University of Maryland, chartered in 1856,
started out as a land-grant agricultural institution: Maryland Agricultural
College. Under the aegis of the School of Agriculture and Natural Resources,
a benefit the school was known for and that state residents always had access to
was the University of Maryland Extension, originally providing expertise and knowl-
edge for local farmers; it now covers far more.
One of its newest areas of expertise is Family & Consumer Sciences,
which “strives to ensure that all Maryland
residents are healthy and economically
successful at every stage of life,” according to its website. Programs under this
division include Food Safety, Nutrition
and Health, Mental Health, and Financial
Wellness.
Meet Carrie Sorenson, an educator
with the University of Maryland Extension.
She started working with UME in 2017 as
an extension educator, teaching about
healthy living, financial literacy and wellness. She has a master’s degree in public
health and is an Accredited Financial
Counselor. She also has a love of all
things food!
Based in Carroll County, today
Sorenson is a member of the Financial
Wellness team, specializing in providing
Financial Literacy and Health Insurance
Literacy to residents in Carroll, Hartford,
and Baltimore counties. “Until this year,
I was providing education on all the subjects under Family & Consumer Sciences,
what most people would refer to as Home
Economics; now I’m part of the Financial
Wellness Team,” she says.
“University of Maryland Extension provides a wide range of personal finance
education and resources for building
financial capability and resilience. Our
experts build programs for young people
and adults, directly or in collaboration
with community organizations, whatever
works best for them,” according to the
extension’s website.”
“A majority of the requests for classes
we receive are about some aspect of
financial literacy,” says Sorenson. “Over
the course of a year, we’ll do more than
100 classes, either face-to-face or via
Zoom. They cover important finance topics like saving for the future, setting up
a budget, managing debt and avoiding scams. Some of our programs even
combine finance with some psychology –
especially as it relates to how they manage
their money – and even a little on physical
and mental health. Given the events of the
past few years, mental health is always
a factor we like to address. We travel to
senior centers, libraries and to community
groups. Our goal is to make it as easy as
possible to take one of our classes and
get access to the information we provide.”
Sorenson has a new program that
reaches out to seniors because they are
often prey for scammers. “Since many
seniors are on fixed incomes, we want to
help them make the most of what they
have available and protect it from the
scams that are so common.” Sorenson
is able to offer this new program with
the support of a grant from University
of Maryland Extension’s Digital Literacy
Project.
“This fall and winter, we are offering
hands-on practice on how to prevent
being a victim of a scam or fraud and
how to identify someone who wants to
take your money. There’s a reluctance
to either hang up the phone or to simply
not answer it. In the classes, we help
them practice doing both, giving them
the right words to say to protect themselves,” Sorenson explains. Anyone interested in getting more information about
the classes can call Sorenson’s office at
410-386-2760.
Another topic Sorenson teaches is
how to create a sustainable budget and
then stick to it, not always an easy task.
She’ll also cover strategies for saving,
both for unforeseen needs and for the