Saving and Investing pt 2

Hello again!

With another week down we are that much closer to our graduation date. But we'll save the reflective entry for the last post!

This week, we discussed Investing. As said in our previous entry, the students were really engaged in Savings and they were all so excited for the next section, investing. The students haven't really been exposed to investing other than the portrayals constructed by the media, so naturally there were a ton of clarifying questions for the financial instructor.

The information was dense, and the students came up with even more questions than they had in the beginning of the class. The instructor and the USC students answered as many questions as they could with the allotted time, and before we knew it the class had ended.

After the students left our class, it was clearer to us that the investing section of our curriculum needed a bit more tweaking before we could present it in our sessions. Despite those speed-bumps, it was yet another successful class as the students were engaged in the subject matter.

See you all next week!

Saving and Investing pt 1

Hello from the Beyond the Bank program! It has officially been a month since we started the second round of Financial Literacy!

The next two lectures are focused on Saving and Investing. Since these two topics are so dense, our financial instructor wanted to spread this lesson plan over two weeks.

It was good reviewing what we learned in the opening lecture about saving. More and more of the students were engaged in the conversation this time around. They were so fired up about budgeting their daily expenses so they could save up for X, Y or Z. One of the students actually started saving up since day 1! She said she didn't want to tell us what she was saving for, but she said she would tell us as soon as she bought it.

When we closed the class, the TAY were really gearing up for next week's session: Investing. The TAY have heard from different peers they need to invest in certain companies. Next week's session should be informative and arm the students with better information. See you all next week!

Students intently listening to the Financial Instructor

Banking and Checking

Welcome back to the third week of Beyond the Bank series!

 It has been an awesome two weeks, and we want to continue to ride the momentum we started back on our first day of class!! This week's class had a rocky start, but it all worked out in the end.

We ran into some difficulty at the start of class. One of our financial instructors encountered some difficulties coming to our location, and couldn't attend the course. Instead, we had the USC undergraduates run the class. The USC undergraduates were absolutely stellar. They did a quick little icebreaker for the group to get to know each other more, and then they broke the class up into their small groups. Because this week's subject was Banking and Checking, the USC undergraduates discussed different banks (and different kinds of banks) with the Right Way students. The USC undergraduates led their small group discussions and asked the Right Way students what kind of banks they all want to use. Ultimately the discussions led to the USC undergraduates sharing their experiences with their bank accounts and why those accounts fit them well.

As the weeks go on, it's great seeing the Right Way students open up more to the USC undergraduate. Due to so many factors that make up the higher-education arena and the foster care system, these two groups of students would never meet one another in an academic setting. Now that Beyond the Bank program is in full swing, these two groups of students have a platform to educate one another in both financial literacy and life experiences.

Even though we ran into a roadblock at the beginning of class, it ended really well! I'll see you all next week!

A group of students in their break out session.

Proecting themselves with Consumer Rights

Welcome back to the second week of this season's Beyond the Bank series!!

It's good to be back in the swing of things, and we're so eager to document this course with you all!

Last night's lecture was taught by different Capital Group representative, Daniel. Like Aaron, Daniel was with us in the first round of Beyond the Bank series as well and helped the USC undergraduates answer some difficult technical questions throughout the course. His lesson last night covered consumer rights and protective laws.

This time around we also wanted to tailor all of the lesson plans for the Right Way students and make sure we cover material that is relevant to the real world. With that in mind, Daniel engaged the class in identifying loan packages, start-up fees, and potential threats to their financial well-being (more specifically, loan packages that are considered to be "too good to be true"). To compliment this information, the USC undergraduates went over various advertisements to different loans and discussed in their small groups whether or not it would be beneficial to apply for them and if they were scams.

The Right Way students are still engaged and love the information we are delivering to them! It was yet again a great night!

Daniel, our Financial Instructor, giving out tips on how to protect your financial well-being.