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Week of September 7th | Kim Knox

Wow! Its has been a great summer for YFE. I cannot fully articulate how excited I am and how blessed I feel to have received so such support from organizations, agencies, community groups, businesses (large & small) and our affiliate credit unions. Without their support, the YFE program would not have enjoyed the success it had this year. Notably, I also had terrific support from DukeEngage, Jim Doughty, Elise Stoll, Matt Everley, ME Design and Pete Minnelli, Brandsavior. Without their support, I would be even more sleep deprived than I am... I would have had to use some generic web software... and the YFE brand would be a stick figure... lol!   Thanks to everyone that gave their time, energy, support and resources to us. You helped make a difference!

It is significantly important that I note the two greatest assets to the program... interns Derek Williams and Ryan O'Connor. They were and are AWESOME!  They came in and took ownership of their job descriptions, making insightful contributions to the curriculum and bringing practical solutions and fun activities to their students and me every week. Each posseses strengths that make them irreplaceable.  The best part...they are returning to the program this fall working in afterschool programs in the area.

Fantastic! We completed our first YFE Train the Trainer workshop series in September.  A total of eight participants from the CDCU community received YFE educator certification.  The 3-part workshops were lead by our program partner Vince Shorb, NYFEC founder.  With its certification completed, Greater Kinston Credit Union has plans to conduct YFE sessions in 3 schools in their community this fall.

Now that it's fall, we are continuing with our plans for expansion and yout outreach. Next month, we will kick-off our YFE savings challenge at Rogers Herr Middle School. The event will have the look and feel of a pep rally, complete with exciting visuals and props. We plan to reach out to approximately 200 eight-grade students. The event will coincide with in-class YFE sessions as part of a classroom activity. Expected to speak during the event are Mayor Bill Bell and NYFEC Founder Vince Shorb. Serving as a sponsor is First Citizens Bank. It should be a great way to start the YFE school year.

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Week of August 10th | Derek Williams

The wonderful summer break is winding down and my time at The Support Center is up, for now. My last official day of teaching financial literacy through the YFE program was August 6. I wrapped up at WD Hill and Lyon Park that day. Between the two camps, over $150 was saved. Lyon Park, however, came out as the champion of the savings challenge. As a result, the students of Lyon Park were able to come to The Support Center and celebrate. I had much fun at every single camp I taught at this summer: Walltown, Camp Calvary, WD Hill, Lyon Park, Campus Hills, Edison Johnson, Greater Kinston’s Savings Club, and the Q Foundation in Charlotte. The time went by fast and I’m realizing just how much Ryan, Ms. Knox, and I were able to accomplish. We reached so many students through the YFE program and they all received very valuable information, which many of their counterparts will not receive until it’s too late.

I’m so glad that I had this opportunity to actually engage with the community and do something positive with my free time. The kids were great, many eager to learn about money. Not onlyhave the kids been able to absorb the information and put it into practice, but I have also begun to practice saving and budgeting.The information that the YFE program provides is vital and I believe that without it many kids would have never been introduced to some of the concepts that we discussed. Ms. Knox, my supervisor, was also great. She provided me with all of the materials I needed, the training I needed, and transportation to and from my sites. Without her, the YFE program would not have been able to even run this summer.

This is my final blog for the summer so I would just like to say thank you to everyone who helped make  the YFE program run smoothly this summer: Kim Knox, Ryan O’Connor, Frances Bryant, Jelani Thompson, Saundra Scales, Roberta Boyd-Norfleet, Rebekah Friesen, Linda Williams, Pete Minnelli, Matt Everley, Ruben Wall, Stephán Askew and anyone else who I’ve failed to mention. Thank you all for your tremendous help and I look forward  to being a part of the YFE program again in the future.  

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Week of July 20 | Derek Williams

The second session has begun and we have all new campsites where we are teaching. The new camps include Lyon Park and WD Hill. The first week was interesting because I had a whole new group of students who I had to learn and introduce myself to. It was fun because I had a fresh start and could fix my approach and other small things in my presentation that I thought I may have done incorrectly before. Also, with the newcamps came a new surge of enthusiasm after I mentioned the savings challenge between Lyon Park and WD Hill. The kids are really excited to see which of them will actually come out ontop.Hopefully, this enthusiasm turns into them taking the extra time and effort necessary for them tobringin their change to save.

There were also challenges that came up this first week. I’ve had to adjust my lesson plans for my two sites since they have very different schedules. This has allowed me to experience ease, as well as unease, when teaching. I have to make sure that all of my students receive the same information within the time allotted. So, it’s been interesting to try tosit down and make two different lesson plans that essentially cover the same information. The upcoming week will really let me know if I’ve done a good job at keeping all of my students on pace and learning the same things.

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