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Consider the following. “A BBA major was offered a full Fund for the Improvement of Post Secondary Education (FIPSE) scholarship from the Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER) plus $3000, to study in Spain. She had to decline, citing needing a job to make payments on her new car lease. Why a car? She answered, ‘To get back and forth to work.’” That episode, related by Robert Hogner, associate professor, Management and International Business Department, coordinator of the college's Civic Engagement Initiative, and a senior fellow in the Honors College, gave two students an idea for an independent study—an option for completing their required Honors College coursework—to help their younger classmates understand and manage their financial challenges more effectively.
Nicholas Valverde (BBA ’06), a finance major with a certificate in banking and one course shy of a minor in economics, and Richard Bruguera (BBA ’06), who had a double major in finance and accounting, recently developed the “Financial Literacy Project.” Hogner supervised. “Some parents haven’t taught their kids how to manage money, and many students who aren’t finance majors haven’t had the opportunity to learn what we have,” said Valverde, who now is working for a private equity fund. “We wanted to help them understand how to manage their money—from controlling their use of credit cards to determining a budget to investing to creating a savings plan.” Fraternity brothers form pilot group. The duo developed a PowerPoint presentation and piloted it with new associates in their fraternity, Pi Kappa Phi, before offering it as “Financial Literacy” information sessions through the “First Year Experience” for incoming students. All students entering Florida International University with fewer than thirty semester hours must take this one-credit course designed to help acclimate them to college life and its expectations. “I was never very good at using credit and was dipping into savings when I shouldn’t have been,” said college MIS major Randy Borges, a member of the pilot group. He gave the experience “two thumbs up.” “The presentation was very informative, and presenters laid it out in a way that was understandable,” he said. “I am now managing my money much more effectively.” Originators transition project to current students. Valverde and Bruguera planned a twenty-minute presentation but received so many questions and so much interest that they expanded it to a full hour. “When we started, I didn’t think students would be that interested, and it was very satisfying to see how involved they became,” said Bruguera, operations manager of non-profit Parent to Parent of Miami, Inc.
Although the two creators of the program have graduated, they established the foundation to leave a legacy—one of the requirements of the independent study project. “Richard was a member of the Financial Management Association (FMA) and I belonged to the Financial Honor Society (FHS), two organizations that work closely together,” Valverde said. “We met with the two boards, got them to agree to continue the project as a community service project, and provided them our presentation to use in future sessions.”
Junior Andres Catano, current vice president of FMA, and John Gutekunst, a senior who serves as FHS president, will carry on the idea. “We’ve created our own presentation based on what we received from Valverde and Bruguera; we hope to roll it out mid-semester or in the spring, not only on campus but at other schools, particularly area high schools,” Catano said. “We want to reach as many students as possible.” According to Hogner, “Valverde and Bruguera’s senior project is a fine example of experiential learning with a responsive and substantive community impact. They already have changed lives, and the project they developed will change many others.” For more information about FMA and FHS, visit http://fiufma.com/. Learn about the Honors College at http://honors.fiu.edu/.
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