More and more, today’s youth are reporting concern around personal finances, with paying for college (47%), not being able to afford to live on their own (45%), paying taxes (43%), and finding a fulfilling, well-paying job (40%) topping the list, according to a recent survey by Junior Achievement. In honor of April being National Financial Literacy Month, we are excited to share the different ways that Agassiz Village has incorporated financial literacy education into our programming to better prepare and empower our high school students to make informed financial decisions.
Most recently, high school students in our year-round Leaders-in-Training program met for a financial literacy workshop led by Brad Rayburn from Fidelity Investments. In this workshop, titled “5 Money Musts,” LITs learned about the five core money concepts - budget, credit, debt, invest, and retire – and had a chance
to ask Brad questions about personal finance. Additionally, we are grateful to be the recipients of a transformational $25,000 grant from the PwC Charitable Foundation, part of which will fund financial literacy curriculum covering topics from financial decision making to taxes and paying for college as part of our LIT and Teen Advancement Programs in 2022. Thank you PwC!
AV teens have also previously benefitted from budgeting lessons as part of our former summer Shark Tank style “Step it Up” program with Loomis Sayles and the mentorship program we ran in 2020 – make sure to read our blog post about the transformative pairing of Citizens Bank HR Development Program Analyst Margot Bosse, and Hadassah, an AV teen mentee from Malden, MA. Margot not only mentored Hadassah, but ultimately helped her older sister Tammy choose a career path in human resources and even supported Hadassah’s mother Yoldie with buying her first house!
A 2017 study finds that differences in financial knowledge account for as much as 30-40% of retirement wealth inequality, and countless studies and researchers report that students who learn to manage finances before graduating high school are more likely to make sound financial decisions and live independently as adults. By providing our teens with financial literacy and education resources early, hope to lay the foundation for youth to lead successful, fulfilling lives long after they leave Agassiz Village.