Principles into practice (or…gear?)! One of those students is Adrian Fernandez, a 20-year-old student at the University of Florida.
Fernandez founded the UF Personal Finance Club at his school, and also led the creation of an Enactus project on campus as well, which focuses on college prep, career counseling, and financial literacy development for high school students from underserved populations.
Fernandez was born in Cuba, and says that he initially connected with Money Vehicle’s founder, Jedidiah Collins, by reaching out on LinkedIn. The two discussed Money Vehicle’s curriculum, and hit it off. Fernandez started the University of Florida Social Entrepreneurship Students group, and a sub-project of that group, called Find Your Interest, which shares many of the same goals as Money Vehicle.
“It’s about financial literacy, career prep, and coaching for students,” Fernandez says. “We created the program last semester (fall 2023), but this semester (spring 2024) is when things are really starting up,” he says. The program, at the time of writing, had 11 members, ad secured a partnership with a local YMCA, and is expanding in Gainsville, Florida, where the University of Florida’s campus is located.
“The goal is to expand it to all universities,” Fernandez says.
Find Your Interest is taking aim at a lack of financial literacy among young people, and is attempting to be particularly helpful to students from low-income households, and especially first-generation-American households. Those students may not have much access to college prep or funding, or know where to find it. As such, Fernandez says that success, in his eyes, would amount to the program making a difference in students’ lives, and ultimately, become self-sustaining.
The most important thing that students need to know, he says, is that there are programs out there for students who are looking for help that they’re not finding at their current school or from their families. Programs like Find Your Interest will help them connect with resources.
Fernandez says that students who are interested in starting an FYI program at their school can do so — Fernandez and his team have access to resources that they can share to help get the project off the ground, including strategies students can use to gain access to community partners and younger students, or effective ways of recruiting fellow college students.
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And check out our white paper: “Strategies for Increasing Financial Literacy Rates Among High School and College Students”
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