Many low-income students know all too well that money talks, but a new Community Impact program aims to teach students that money thinks too.
For the first time in five years, Community Impact—an umbrella for over 25 local community service groups—added a new program to its roster. That group, Moneythink, looks to teach financial literacy and entrepreneurship to high school students.
Community Impact programs “definitely cover a huge scope, but there’s health groups, there’s art groups, there’s groups that tutor students to prepare them for college applications and with the SATs, but I think, if you look at the statistics for financial literacy in the United States, it’s just very jarring,” Cheryl Liu, CC ’14 and Moneythink coordinator, said. “There’s a need that goes beyond the youth groups, and definitely, we target the youth groups because we feel like they’re the next generation of American small business leaders.”
Originally founded at the University of Chicago and currently active on 16 college campuses, Moneythink emphasizes basic entrepreneurial skills such as writing a check, managing a bank account, and balancing a checkbook. Moneythink volunteers also mentor high school students in setting personal and business goals and navigating the current economic climate.
Although Community Impact’s limited resources and funding make it difficult to accept new programs, executives agreed beforehand to re-open the application for new groups this year to celebrate Community Impact’s 30th anniversary on campus. Moneythink beat out six other organizations that applied for recognition.
Jason Mogen, CC ’12, and Chloe Oliver, CC ’12, both Community Impact executives involved in accepting the new group, considered Moneythink well-suited to join Community Impact because Moneythink’s specific focus on finance would attract a diverse base of volunteers and offer a unique emphasis on personal finance.
“This one provided something new and very different,” Mogen said. “It was something that we felt would work well with the resources that Community Impact has to offer.”
Community Impact has a number of programs geared toward health promotion, tutoring, and the arts, but it did not previously have a group for volunteers interested in economics or finance.
“Knowing how to manage personal finances is really important, whether you’re a teenager or adult,” Mogen said. “Students aren’t normally given this information in high school.”
Columbia’s Moneythink chapter currently operates through the Double Discovery Center, a Columbia program that reaches out to low-income or first-generation New York City students in seventh to 12th grades. However, coordinators hope to get classes started at the Boys’ Club in Harlem.
Liu and Michael Exter, CC ’14, taught the first eight-student Moneythink class at the Double Discovery Center two weeks ago. The curriculum will include both a financial literacy semester and an entrepreneurship semester. At the first lesson, Liu and Exter focused on urging students to set personal goals and find concrete ways to accomplish them, citing successful entrepreneurs, such as media tycoon Oprah Winfrey, who value goal-setting.
According to both Liu and Exter, students showed real motivation and desire to learn the material.
“It was great that we walked into the class for the first time, one of the kids had actually put up on the projector a simulation showing the federal deficit,” Exter said.
Liu added that she, Exeter, and Moneythink’s national coordinators have big dreams for the program.
“Looking ahead, by 2020, the goal is to be one of the biggest mentoring college initiatives in the country,” Liu, said. “We feel that financial literacy is such an important topic to address.”
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