The Candor

Issue date: 1/19/09 Section: News

Media Credit: Kit Alvear

Time is money. Students spent the better part of the fall semester tracking their spending habits and teaching younger students good financial habits as part of the two-credit "MGT 391: Service Learning - Managing Personal Spending and Savings," an eight-week course. Those in the class recorded their daily and weekly spending, stayed to a budget and talked about their difficulties.

As part of the Junior Achievement of Chicago program, students also went out to local middle schools to engage students in lessons about being smart with money. The class had its final meeting on Dec. 18 and invited those who helped helped the class start.

"You're pioneering a new program for BU student that is unique perhaps in the United States," Sandra Gill, dean of the college of business, told the class of approximately 30 students.

On that last day, the students turned in their journals where they had kept a budget and kept track of all of their spending habits. They also discussed their experiences on a budget and their experiences teaching junior high students about good spending habits.

Junior Jaclyn Dominguez commented on returning a pair of shoes after deciding she did not need them.

"It wasn't easy," she joked. Students had different reasons for joining the class.

"I thought it would be interesting to learn about money management," said freshman Victoria Dantoja. She said the most important thing she learned was not to overdraft on her accounts.

Junior Sean Bartelt mentioned that he was "taking it just as something to fulfill credit, but now I realize that it's really helped me in my life."

Alice Wood, founder of Wealth Watchers, the company that provided the journals and some of the materials, had the students one-by-one say what they would be doing differently after the course.

Students mentioned packing their own lunch, paying more attention to spending and even making a weekly budget. Wood rewarded them with a dollar coin provided by U.S. Bank as a token of their newly established financial habits.

"It was absolutely inspiring to see so many students come together and care about being smart with money," said Wood.

"They weren't doing it just for the credit, they were doing it to have a better grasp on how they were spending and saving their money," she added.

Continued...

Page 1 of 2 next >

Article Tools