Connecting Students with Finance Role Models
One key element of Yeske Buie’s Give Big philosophy is the importance of financial literacy. Yeske Buie has curated a financial literacy program which helps our Clients educate their children and grandchildren about money because we believe that understanding money is critical to building a successful life. This series of tools helps educate and facilitate conversations about money and finance.
Outside of the home, we are encouraged by the proliferation of financial literacy resources provided by nonprofit organizations. Dozens of nonprofits have been established with the understanding that financial literacy is crucial to living an abundant life. One such organization – Junior Achievement USA (JA), founded in 1993 – works with young people across the country to build the knowledge and skills necessary for success.
Yeske Buie began its relationship with JA in April of this year, when Sydney Woodward (current Director of Pro Bono for the San Francisco chapter of the Financial Planning Association) coordinated with a member of the JA staff to organize a day of presenting to high school students in Northern California about various topics on financial literacy. Sydney, Tim, Rustin, and Aubrey gave a full day of presentations on topics such as credit cards and credit scores, budgeting, and estate planning and shared a photo with the students they taught after a successful day.
After hearing about the West Coast team’s successful outing, Ryan reached out to a local Junior Achievement contact and inquired about similar opportunities for involvement in financial literacy. Ryan was introduced to JA Finance Park, an interactive personal budgeting experience provided throughout the year to every 8th-grade student in Fairfax County public schools. The park is designed to look like a town square with 18 unique storefronts sponsored by local corporate partners. These storefronts meet the themes of various budgeting categories including clothing, food, transportation, childcare, utilities, housing, investing, and leisure.
JA Finance Park hosts 150 students on every school day of the year for an engaging day all about financial literacy. During this experience, they learn about budgeting, debit vs. credit, credit scores, taxes, and more. When the students arrive at JA Finance Park, they are sorted into small groups of 5-10 students each led by one volunteer. During a brief orientation, students are each provided a tablet through which they are assigned a unique life experience encompassing an occupation, a net monthly income, a credit score, and a family status. This is usually the most fun part of the day for the kids, as they love comparing how many kids they have, how lucrative their jobs are, and how much their fictional spouses contribute to the household budget.
After the orientation, the students will rotate through each room to conduct research and interact with the volunteer stationed there to learn about the expense and set a budget. Volunteers facilitate conversations about their assigned category, speaking from personal experience to educate students about what goes into budgeting for each expense in the real world.
At the end of the day, students return to the storefront where they started and will actually spend their “income” on various purchases through the simulation on their tablets to fill up the budgets they just created. All the while, the students are presented with randomized life experiences (similar to the board game Life). For instance, one student was given the scenario that he had hit a foul ball during a recreational baseball game and had to pay $100 in damages. Meanwhile, another student’s simulation told him that he was hit by a baseball at a game and had to pay $100 in medical expenses!
All throughout, we as volunteers had the opportunity to speak with students about our lives and theirs to help them put money into a context they could understand. Here are a few stories and comments from the students we worked with:
- One student had a camera with him and asked Ryan about paying taxes. He had just started a business with his dad this year and knew about federal taxes but was wondering what other taxes he’d have to pay.
- “I have to budget way more than $200 for clothes in a year. My pants alone cost $100!” This student’s classmates then teased him for having expensive taste and talked about how much they love thrifting and shopping at Goodwill.
- “I’m just gonna get one car. My spouse can take the bus to work.”
- Some students pointed to their credit score and noticed how it made it harder for them to afford housing or auto loans. Ryan had a few conversations with students about how to build credit responsibly and what types of behaviors could hurt one’s credit score.
- “I never knew how expensive childcare was!” Several students wanted to sell their kids or put them up for adoption because they required too much of the budget.
While some students did say they would rather be in class than doing this full-day budgeting exercise, many walked away with a better appreciation for how much time and energy goes into budgeting for a family and how high the cost of living can be. As they loaded the buses, some students could be heard saying, “I need to go thank my parents!”
Supporting financial literacy for the generations to come is important to us and it was a pleasure to get to be part of these students’ day. Our team looks forward to continuing to volunteer with JA on both coasts!