The Origin of Symmetry's Blog

Reflections from the group

shotwellj1 — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 10:02:20 +0000

I feel the students did learn to make more informed choices about money management. I think some of them had no idea that there were choices to make, let alone what they were. We did tell the students what to do to get more information for further learning if they wanted to and I feel that we succeeded in showing them how to effectively improve their financial well-being. As a result of participating in this project I have learned a lot about financial responsibility and I have been working on my spending habits based on the curriculum we had. I am not very confident in the possibility of teaching this class again. I have just figured out what I should do, I shouldn’t be telling others what to do financially, especially when all I have to work with is a very low student income; these people have families and households to support. I would only recommend this project to peers that were financially stable and had a lot of knowledge of financial business. I have done some community service before this project, but it was mostly manual labor. I probably would not have participated in this project if it were not required. I will most likely not participate in any future non-required projects like this because I just don’t feel I am qualified. I might do something else, like teach math, but not finances. I think that there was a lot of good intention with this project, but I just don’t think that college students are qualified to be teaching this stuff.

The students did learn some valuable information during the five weeks. Many of these adults knew about how to pay their bills, but not about the many different ways to save money. There wasn’t much that I didn’t already know in the financial area. I don’t think that I really will change what I’m already doing. I don’t think that I am more confident to talk to people about this subject because I am still learning. I’m also young, and didn’t feel comfortable telling older adults how to save money. I wouldn’t recommend this project to my peers unless they had a lot of time to devote to the project. I think that it is a little much to demand this project on all college students, because many students have jobs. I wouldn’t have participated in this project if it was voluntary. With classes and work, I didn’t really have a lot of time to devote to the project. I might consider doing other service learning projects, but not while I was in school. I have been involved in service learning before, but it was for children. I think that is what I would want to do because of the line of work that I would like to do.

We were very honest with the students and spoke of our experiences. It definitely was good to see them come up with questions that were relevant and important to them about their money. Since I told them they could ask me in Spanish, they did, simply because they felt more comfortable asking questions and getting answers in Spanish. All of our students had a goal of going to college to better their lives and the lives of their families. Once we opened their eyes to the power of saving they paid more attention and cared. I was learning with them. I saw how much money I was spending on things that I really did not need. This knowledge will help me in the long run. I have stocks and a savings account and to be able to share my experiences was priceless. When we achieved those “wow” moments it made everything worth wild. As good as it felt to help, this project just came at a bad time in my career. It was out of my way and took up time that I could have been working on other things for work or school. Nonetheless, I am glad that we were able to open people’s eyes.

FINALLY!!

theoriginofsymmetry — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:25:44 +0000

I will be brutally honest. I am glad I have my Mondays back.

The information that we gave the class was very useful and I am sure that one or two people will use the information. The others might have thrown away the books and cd’s. It’s OK. I don’t mind. I have my Mondays back.

It was a good experience to go and teach them some stuff that we had little knowledge in, it was just a drive to get from the Woodlands to the place and deal with people that really did not want to listen. Some people did listen but did not participate. Just like one of our classmates… Alas, I have my Mondays.

The class did tell us that they felt that we did a good job. I believe that the majority of us did a great job. One of us… eh. It was fun. We made it fun and we worked with what we had. It made sense to them and to us. We answered their questions. And now, we have our Mondays. YAY!

Last week!

shotwellj1 — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:04:13 +0000

I think that the last week was great. I thought Selena, Mic, and I had good things to say about types of insurance. I think some of the information we gave them was helpful. The students knew some things, but they listened. We did have some in the class who didn’t really listen because they didn’t want to. However, those who did listen, enjoyed the class. I think that the information we gave them will be used. We had one man tell us that he got into a fight with his wife because he wanted to talk about the budget. Overall, the class was fun to teach. -Jolene

Fifth and Final Week

selkam47 — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:35:56 +0000

Well, it is all over now! It was a little bittersweet for me. I was happy to get my Monday nights back and not have to face evening traffic anymore. But I’m not confident we really got through to people. Our last class it was on and off for the class. Sometimes they seemed to be listening, but most of the time they were not paying attention and were doing other things. There was about two men who actually sat there and listened to us. That was a good thing, but the rest of the class was just not interested.

The class was much smaller than usual and the people that would usually be involved in discussions were not present. There was one lady that would chime in every once in awhile, but the rest of the time she was working on something else. For the last class we talked about protecting our wealth. Some people seemed to get interested when we talked about renters and home insurance and a little when we talked about health insurance. I was suprised when a couple of students were able to give us more information. We concluded with making sure there were no more questions and made sure the surveys had been completed. I am thankful that our class was as good as it was. It may not have ended on the best note, but thinking back on the rest of the weeks we have spent with the class, I know that we provided some really helpful information. I just hope that at least one person in the class gained something, that will have made this all worth it. I am glad to have participated in this. I would have never thought myself to be one to teach this sort of curriculum, but I did and it was a really great learning experience for me.

-Selena Kaminski

Michael’s 4th Week

theoriginofsymmetry — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 18:44:59 +0000

This week was interesting. I still felt a tad bit sick. (I was battling a flu this past weekend) I was really sleepy and honestly I did not want to be there. Last week was pretty hard since they were very uninterested and seemed as if they did not want to be there. I guess you could tell it was a Monday. ANYWHO, for the most part the class seemed to be more into the subject. They were definitely asking more questions and were interacting. This week we talked about debt and how to take care of the debt. They seemed a little surprised at how quickly they could fall into debt. Once they realized that next time was going to be our last class with them, they wanted more resources so they can find more information or get additional answers.

Fourth Week

shotwellj1 — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 18:31:07 +0000

I think that this week went well, because we had all four members there. The same people who talk in the class were the ones who participated in the discussion. We did have one person ask who she was going to be able to have to answer her questions once we were gone. That was nice to have someone who would like us to be there still. I think that many of the people in our class have a lot of common sense about not spending what they don’t have. However, some didn’t know how to build their wealth, or even protect what they didn’t have. I think that this sessions was the most helpful of the other three that we have had before. -Jolene

Forth Week….One more class!!!

selkam47 — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 18:19:01 +0000

Today’s class was FULL of questions! Mostly from one girl, but they were very good. We discussed taking control of debt. We talked about the importance of our credit score and Mic and Jolene told the class where to go to get a credit report. I was glad that they knew so much about credit scores and the different types. I will most definitely be getting my credit score after this class! I was very happy that the one girl was asking so many questions. When she asks a question I really feel like she wants the answer and that she is going to use the information. They weren’t just trivial questions, either, they were specific to her situation that I think we were able to answer and expand more broadly so that the rest of the class could get some advise from it too. Then we talked about paying debt off early and protecting ourselves from identity theft. I’m not sure if the students had thought about identity theft before or if they knew how to stop it, but I think they learned a lot from what we had to say. I made a commitment to get my credit score from the website in the book this week and then answer questions next week, if they will just do it as well. I hope that they will attempt to get it. After hearing about them not doing the homework we had asked them to do, I was disappointed, but motivated to get them to do SOMETHING outside of class!

Third Week

selkam47 — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 18:18:55 +0000

I wish I would have been able to make it this thrid week. Unfortunately there was an unexpected tragedy that happened in my family, but I was happy about what I heard of how the class went. I was glad to hear that one of the students was prepared for the class and knew a lot of the material. Unfortunately no one did what we had asked them to do over the week, but I think we can still encourage them to try it out. I think if we let them know that it’s not too late to start, then we might get a couple of them to try. It’s going to be hard for many of the students to make the time, but even if we only get one to do it, then it’s worth the effort because that means that we changed that persons finacial future and perhaps we laid the beginning of their path to wealth!

-Selena Kaminski

Third Meeting

theoriginofsymmetry — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 14:13:34 +0000

WOW. What a change for the third meeting. First, Jolene and I were the only group members to show up, personal issues kept the rest of the group out understandably, but the class seemed out of it. In contrast to last week, the students seemed pretty uninterested and unresponsive to us. I don’t know why. This was the first time that I felt that I was an intrusion in the class. However, there was one student whom surprised me because of his vast knowledge on the subject. I probed and found out that in Mexico he used to deal with stocks and assets, hence his knowledge. On top of the unresponsiveness, no one did their homework that we left them. No one. I refuse to baby any adult, so I moved on. Hopefully next class will be better. It will be.

Second Week

shotwellj1 — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 18:18:36 +0000

I thought that the second week went well. I think it really helped the students to write down how much they are spending and how much they are making. We asked them to write down what they spend every day to see how much they are really using and how much they could potentially save. I am curious to see the results on the third Monday. I have also written down what I have spent in my own budget to show them another way of tracking it.

We had new students in the class. I think it made it a little difficult to be on the same page with everyone. I think if we have new students in the 3rd class, it will make it harder to move on to more detailed things because we may have to back track some. We will see- Jolene