Campus Cash Cart Give Rides, Prizes and Guidance Towards Financial Fitness

If you spot a golf-cart whizzing past you along MainStreet on the University of Cincinnati campus, don’t step aside, hop on board.

Students are winning prizes while increasing their money-managing skills as they ride to class on UC’s “Cash Cart” during Financial Literacy Month in April.

The next Cash Cart campus-ride opportunity is

11 a.m.-2 p.m., Wednesday, April 20, beginning outside the One Stop Student Center.

As part of UC’s efforts to increase financial literacy –– one of the most important skills a successful graduate might use throughout life –– One Stop’s

UCan Manage It

webpage is coming off the screen and onto campus on Wednesdays during April to test your knowledge, build your skills, and whisk you to class with treats and gifts.

“April is Financial Literacy Month and being new in this position, I knew I had to get financial literacy on students’ minds in a big way,” says Andrea Siderits, financial literacy and training manager, One Stop Student Service Center. “When my fellow manager mentioned this idea from another campus, I knew we had a winner.”

CASH CART COURSE ON THE GO

As students hitch a ride to class or back to their dorms, they are asked a series of questions that test their basic knowledge of common financial issues. At the end of the ride the contestants receive treats, prizes and food coupons for their skillful answers or their desire to learn more.

Madison Turner, second-year finance major working as a student worker for the Student Wellness Center, was the question moderator on the Cash Cart ride-and-learn One Stop project.

“We have a variety of questions that range from, what is FAFSA to what source lets you withdraw money without a penalty: a certificate of deposit (CD), a checking account or an Independent Retirement Account (IRA),” says Turner.

Most all students knew that CDs and IRAs charged a penalty for early withdraw, so when correctly answering “a checking account” as the one that charges no fee for withdrawing money, Ian Raffenberg, fourth-year environmental science major, won treats and a food coupon.

College students weren’t the only passengers to win treats on the campus Cash Cart. Two Hughes High School students taking college prep course at UC showed off their financial literacy skills as they hitched a ride across campus.

“I think this is a great idea to bring awareness to students even before they enter college,”

says Yarea Weaver, senior at Hughes High School. “Learning about UC’s One Stop money-management resources is important for helping me manage my upcoming student loans and scholarships.”

As part of UC’s comprehensive resources for financial readiness, Siderits explains that UC also promotes

GradReady

to students as one of its tools for assistance with paying for college, money management and student loan repayment.

UC WINS FINANCIAL LITERACY AWARD

And targeting college students is also not all UC’s award-winning financial literacy research has been recognized for recently. Julia Heath, professor in the College of Education, Criminal Justice and Human Services and director in UC’s Economics Center received one of the

2016 Excellence in Financial Literacy Education (EIFLE) Awards

from the

Institute for Financial Literacy

. The awards were presented on Wednesday at a gala ceremony during the annual Conference on Financial Education in Orlando, Florida.

Heath’s honor was on behalf of her development of

$martPath

, an educational computer game, which was the end result of a $1 million donation earmarked for the economic and financial education of teachers and students.

Heath developed the $martPath computer-game program to meet both Ohio’s new Common Core-based learning standards and national standards on K-12 personal finance education –– standards set by JumpStart, a non-profit organization dedicated to financial education.

With April as a prime time to target new graduates who will be entering the workforce, as well as new students looking for ways to manage student loans, scholarships and living expenses, Siderits says it’s never too soon to build good money-management habits.

FINANCIAL LITERACY MONTH EVENTS

• MORE ON UC’s ONE STOP 
• UCan Manage It
• GradReady