To provide financial literacy to the IDA participants, the Center for Economic Education director and staff, in collaboration with U.S. Bank representatives, conducted a one-day Financial Fitness Camp during the 2024 Winter break.

                               

IDA 5.0 Winter Workshop 2024

IDA 5.0 Participants are required to attend an in-person Financial Literacy workshop held on campus in the College of Business and Economics. Students will learn about personal finance topics such as tax forms, credit, and introductory investment terminology. For more information, please contact [email protected].

When: Friday, Janurary 19th, 2024

Where: CSU Fullerton CBE SGMH 1506

Time: 10:00AM to 1:00 PM PST

Student comments on the 2023 Financial Fitness Boot Camp

"The IDA Program has helped me form a habit to save."

"After the IDA Program, I feel more secure to open a credit card account."

"I am so thankful for this wonderful program."

"I loved this program that taught me a savings habit, which I will utilize outside of this program."

"This program helped me be incentivized to save again, after the shift from full-time work to full-time school."

"This program made me look forward to making a deposit at the beginning of the month...I hope other students get to experience this wonderful program, it's a very unique opportunity."

All students from grades nine to 12 may participate in one or more of the five competitions:

• Stock Market Competition – Students utilize a simulated $100,000 investment portfolio. Student groups will be judged based on their understanding of investment strategies and the performance of their portfolio in three-minute presentations delivered at the Olympiad.
• Financial Video Competition – Participants create short video presentations, which cover such practical themes as savings, investments, budgeting and credit.
• Financial Literacy/Personal Finance Knowledge Competition – Students will be tested on their knowledge of business and personal finance topics.
• Business and Economic News (BEN) Competition – A multiple-choice quiz will cover significant business- and economics-related topics that appeared in major media outlets, such as The Wall Street Journal, over the preceding 10 weeks.
• Olympiad Business Plan – A problem/solution statement, product service description, target market and competitive analysis, organizational structure and expertise, business model, pricing strategy, and startup cost analysis will be presented. All students participating in the business plan event must first complete a plan of a maximum of two pages.

Complimentary student mentoring is available for all events, including subscription to The Wall Street Journal. 

In addition to providing business experience for students to include on their résumés or college applications, certificates of merit and cash awards will also be presented for each event and the overall Olympiad, providing support for future academic or career pursuits.

2019 Olympiad Gallery | 2018 Olympiad Gallery | 2016 Olympiad Gallery | 2015 Olympiad Gallery

• Maximize Potential of Employment to End Homeless Cycle

• Design and Deliver Standardized Workforce Training Modules

• Recognize Evolving Economy

• Provide Lifelong and Nonlinear Changing Skills and Competencies

• Improve Unbanked/Underbanked Instances

• Provide Budgeting and Financial Literacy skills

The Workforce Development Mentoring Process

All mentors are Institutional Review Board (IRB) certified, live- scanned and briefed on the sensitivity of the needs of the community residing in homeless shelter sites.

Mentors engage with the clients one-on-one and help them build a professional résumé using resources from Cal State Fullerton’s Career Center, the BLS Occupational Handbook and other sources.

Mentors Perform the Following:

• Re-orient homeless shelter residents into the needs of the job market.

• Educate homeless shelter residents on employment opportunities, job descriptions and need of employers.

• Actively assist homeless shelter residents one-on-one in job search through company websites and job search websites.

• Assist in systematic manner to set up accounts and register in Indeed, USA Jobs.gov and CalJobs.gov.

• Empower residents to develop a professional résumé and an effective cover letter

• Prepare residents for job interviews by offering mock interviews.

• Equip residents with English language communication skills, basic academic skills, numeracy, software and IT skills for office work.

• Establish a job search schedule and follow up with residents as they navigate the job search and keep track of their job applications.

• Mentors prepare a Job Lab Report geared to the specific needs of each client/resident (sample Job Lab Report attached in the appendix).

• Match residents with career training sites, post-secondary education, GED, certification and training programs.

• Once residents get a job, mentors dive into the financial literacy part of the program that teaches residents budgeting; saving; setting SMART Goals – Specific, Manageable, Action-oriented, Reasonable, Timebound; and how to manage their debt. Resources used are Wells Fargo’s Hands on Banking® and FDIC Money Smart.

• The center offers carefully selected and motivated residents with scholarships towards developing trade skills, such as cosmetology and phlebotomy certifications, and towards completion of the high school equivalency diploma.

Source: http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/financial-education/Pages/Advisory.aspx

Two of the four recommendations of the President’s Advisory Council on Financial Capability are to teach economic and financial literacy in K through 12 schools and to conduct research on the effectiveness of financial literacy education, especially in underserved communities. In the aftermath of the Great Recession of 2007-2009, the PACFC stated that financial education “should take its rightful place” in American schools.

It is indeed in the country’s best interest to be a financially literate workforce, as United States Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, pointed out in 2012. However, less than 20% of teachers report feeling very competent to teach personal finance topics (Survey of States, 2011).

California is not one of the seventeen states that requires that a course in personal finance be taught in high school.
Source: http://www.councilforeconed.org/news-information/survey-of-the-states/

The Center for Economic Education in partnership with U.S. Bank hosts teacher training workshops and provides curriculum material in personal finance to high school economics teachers in the region.

Teacher Training Workshops

2015 State-Wide Teachers Workshop in Economics and Financial Literacy

Meet the Speakers.pdf

2013 State-Wide Teachers Workshop in Economics and Financial Literacy

View Photos Here »

The students also learned how to buy and sell stocks in the stock market.

The culminating moment of this camp was a video the students put together that highlighted the importance of saving.
Watch the Fun »

The Financial Fitness camps, held in Mihaylo Hall on the Cal State Fullerton campus, covered topics on the economic way of thinking, scarcity and choice, saving, borrowing, making a budget, investing in the stock market, and scams and schemes.

U.S. Bank Financial Genius Afterschool for Richman Elementary School

           

U.S. Bank Financial Genius for Girls Inc.