Financial Enrichment and Management (collegiate class of 20182019)
Lambda Theta Nu Sorority, Incorporated’s overall objective is to implement a financial management class for high school students ages 15-18. This class will prepare and empower them with financial literacy and the ability to respect and understand the distinction between spending money and using money, becoming effective citizens in a global economic society. The overall impact will teach inner city youth traditionally underexposed to the tools of financial literacy, 1) how to use a bank effectively, 2) the importance of credit, 3) saving your money vs. spending your money, 4) why all money is not “good money," and 5) money and college.
What are some of your organization’s most important achievements to date?
As a non-profit organization we cater to the female youth through our programming. Through our philanthropy "TIJERAS," cutting through to enhance education opportunities, we fundraise hundreds of dollars every year to donate to another non-profit organization which carries out this purpose on a grander scale. We also serve our community through our Annual Latina Youth Leadership Conferences that are targeted to middle and high school students. We offer these students workshops about A-G Requirements, resume building, networking, mental health, and student panels among many others. Overall our organization encourages students to pursue a higher education and we offer them the tools and support to do so.
Please explain how you will evaluate your project. How will you measure success?
Evaluation of the project will be in the form of weekly student activity logs, pre and post surveys, quizzes, and monitoring of the students. Our success will be measured by monitoring student participation in the weekly student activities and workshops, success of the students in using their money effectively during workshops and activities, as well as their scores from the pre-quiz to the post quiz for the program.
How will your project benefit Los Angeles?
Statistics from the California High School Performance Reports presented by the State Department of Education indicate that only 63.5% of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) students graduate from high school. Those scoring above 50 percentile is even less. One area school, Fairfax High, has only a four-year competition rate of 42.3%. Without intervention, many of those students will drop out of school; many more will graduate without the necessary skills needed to succeed in life. Our classes will enable students to enter the workforce with more positive and realistic aspirations. Students statistically expected to underachieve will be empowered to do the opposite.
What would success look like in the year 2050 regarding your indicator?
In the year 2050 this group of students would have reached out to two more generations of students developing their financial enrichment, thus advancing the effect of this program implemented in 2013. Los Angeles will see that more high school students are prepared with the ability to understand and use different aspects of banking, money, and credit and its relation to personal income.