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Making finance of interest to kids

Posted on May 1, 2015 by Sonoma Valley Sun

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Union Bank volunteers Molly Fedorchak, Senior Community Relations Manager, and Robin Gold, Sonoma Branch Manager, teach the final class of a financial education program at Flowery School.

For the third year, Union Bank partnered with financial dignity nonprofit Operation HOPE and Boys & Girls Clubs of Sonoma Valley to educate Valley students about the basics of personal finance.

The five-week course, the first at Flowery, culminated with a recognition ceremony to celebrate the students’ completion of the program on April 8.

“The lessons that the students learn each week will serve them for many years to come,” said BGCSV Interim Executive Director Alan Anspach.

The “Banking on Our Future” curriculum features the Basics of Budgeting, Get Smart About Banking (Checking and Saving Accounts), Fundamentals of Credit, and Introduction to Savings and Investing.  There is also a course titled “A Course in Dignity.”

Each week, students participating in the program learned practical lessons by using hands-on calculations and real-world examples.

“It has been so gratifying to see the progress students make in learning financial concepts through this program each week,” Fedorchak said.

The program, said HOPE’s Rebecca Blanco said “is all about empowering youth through age-appropriate curriculum that is engaging and fun to provide information that will serve students well into the future.”

Banking on Our Future was designed to elevate the dignity, hope, and economic self-sufficiency of people in low-wealth communities through financial empowerment.  Since its inception, the program has reached more than 790,000 students in more than 700 schools and community-based organizations in the U.S. and South Africa.




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