It’s called Boot Camp because it’s tough and imparts necessary skills. But the goal of Loyola Marymount University’s Financial Literacy Boot Camp is that students leave with knowledge of how to manage money responsibly and save for their futures.
“Do you have any money?” Jonathon Farahi asked the high school students gathered at LMU’s Westchester campus. “Where is it?” he pressed those who did. “In a bank account? Simple or compound interest? What’s the difference?”
Farahi didn’t always get the answers he wanted, but these weren’t easy questions. “This isn’t geometry. This isn’t algebra,” said Farahi, a 2015 entrepreneurship graduate participating in the camp with LMU students and faculty members. “These are real-life examples of what you’re going to be dealing with.”
The third session of the camp – a four-day crash course in budgeting, investing, saving, setting financial goals and preparing for milestone events such as car buying – runs Aug. 8-11. Upon completion, each student will earn a $50 savings bond.
LMU’s Fred Kiesner Center for Entrepreneurship launched the camp last year as part of the Save It Forward Initiative, a program spearheaded by Kinko’s founder and part-time faculty member Paul Orfalea. The initiative teaches students about money matters and encourages them to share their knowledge with family and friends.
Ron Rishagen, entrepreneur in residence at LMU, taught similar classes when he was a teacher at St. Bernard High School in Westchester. Rishagen said he saw the value of teaching finance basics at the high school level and is pleased to be a part of the camp at LMU.
“I can tell you that once you’ve gone through this program and you’ve listened to these instructors, you trust these instructors,” Rishagen told teens earlier this summer. “You will be financially successful.”
