How I got involved in the CFA Society Boston Financial Literacy Initiative:
I started volunteering about 6 years ago. I don’t remember the exact details but I think I responded to a “call for volunteers”. It wasn’t long before I met Alice Avanian, who was the spark that started all of our Fin Lit efforts at CFA Boston – she’s amazing! Pretty much right away, I started teaching classes at a local correctional facility and (covid time-period excluded) have been doing so ever since.
finlit Alliances* i work with:
My primary focus has been financial literacy/investing classes at a local correctional facility. I love these classes because there’s such broad diversity within the student population – for example, I can go from talking about optimizing Social Security with retirement-aged students to discussing why a Roth 401k/IRA can make sense for students in their 20s. The unified thread that I try to maintain is making the discussion all about my students’ financial goals. We start the class by documenting our goals, and ranking them based on their importance and urgency. This makes the rest of the conversation so much more “real”.
I’ve also taught other courses, such as at the Boston Public Library and via Junior Achievement. I’m thankful for the great alliance leaders who dedicate their time to leading and organizing those efforts.
*Financial Literacy Alliances are organizations that the society partners with to offer financial literacy.
FinLIT VOlunteer positions:
I’m an alliance leader for the correctional facility courses, but it’s really just a small program. Getting approved to teach requires jumping through some hoops, but I do have two amazing co-volunteers – Kate Ullucci and Victoria Wang – who are passionate and excellent teachers.
What volunteering for Financial Literacy means to me:
I love teaching, and I love doing my small part to help people live more fulfilling lives from a financial perspective. Specific to my correctional facility work, the US contains less than 5% of the world’s population, but 20% of the world’s incarcerated population. I’m not in a position to address this at a systemic level, but I can help individual people who are incarcerated.
my Favority Financial Literacy VOlunteer moment:
I’ve really enjoyed sitting with other Fin Lit volunteers at the annual CFA Boston Market Dinner. I’ve never met a Fin Lit volunteer I didn’t like – I think everyone is there for the right reasons!