Cents Ability

1. Community service is bettering yourself and your environment by giving other a better life and chances of succeeding. I do not know if my definition of community service will change as a result of this experience, rather I believe that it will evolve to incorporate my new thoughts and ideas as a result of Cents Ability.

2. I have tutored for profit and as a volunteer for four years. I absolutely love passing on my knowledge to make someone else’s life fuller and more interesting.

I remember one of the largest problems I had with high school is the fact that I never learned anything about personal finance. I wondered how students who never go to college or those who go to exclusively liberal arts schools learn about managing their money. I purposely joined FBLA in my senior year of high school in order to take part in a state test in personal finance. I knew nothing when I started, but I immersed myself in personal finance books, and when I went to the state test in New Jersey, I received 2^nd place. I was then invited to go to the national competition in Nashville, Tennessee, but sadly my high school’s funding was cut by more than 80% by the state, so I could not attend. Teaching always has been and always will be one of my most cherished passions. Combining two of my favorite subjects will be personally and professionally gratifying.

3. I think that I will appreciate the effort and dedication better that my professors put in in order to teach a class because although I have taught many students individually, I have never taught a whole class except for a few presentations. As a scholar, this experience will greatly improve my communication and public speaking skills, and I value these abilities greatly as I plan on doing at least a minor in Communications and my major would in any case be very communication intensive.

4. Our economy is in a downturn because Americans spend more than they can afford. The brochure for Cents Ability mentions how a large percentage of teenagers and young adults are in serious debt. If I could help even a small percentage of the American youth ameliorate their financial situation, it will be more than worth it.

5. In my past two semesters, when I took Honors Microeconomics and Honors Macroeconomics, we learned about interest, loans, stocks, bonds and many other financial topics. I knew most of the topics before I had taken these classes because of the extensive foundation I learned while studying Personal Finance.  Also, this material is very relevant to my Business 1000 Honors class that I took two semesters ago and my current Accounting, Computer Information Systems, and Statistics classes.

1. What is your definition of community service? Do you expect it to change through this experience? If so, in what way(s)?

My definition of community service is the ability to give something back to my community and to the people who are part of it, as a form of appreciation and gratitude for the opportunities that my Macaulay Honors College education is providing me with. I do not expect my definition of community service to change through this experience. I do, however, believe that working with CentsAbility will allow me to not just clock in my required volunteer hours, but rather make me feel like part of something important that is making a difference for the children that I will be teaching.

2. Why have you chosen to explore this particular community service opportunity?

I have a lot of experience working with children in the past. My first part-time job was working  as a party counselor for children’s birthday parties and my second was working at an occupational therapy office that specialized in pediatrics. Working with children is very rewarding because they have the ability to brighten your day and make you feel special and important, while you in turn have the ability to see that you have a direct influence on someone’s life. My last volunteering opportunity was with the Brooklyn Public Library, however, I was mostly in charge of shelving books which was neither very demanding nor thought-provoking. I am interested in volunteering with CentsAbility because I would be working with teenager as opposed to younger children which would be a new challenge for me. I truly believe that as an instructor you can learn as much from your students as you can teach them.

3. How do you think that this particular community service experience will influence you as a person and as a scholar?

I believe that working with CentsAbility will allow me to have a better understanding of finance, and while this is not my major, it is important for my future and managing my personal finances. It will also give me the opportunity to better my communication skills.

4. Do you see this community service experience as being connected to larger political, social, cultural, and economic issues?

This community service opportunity is connected to all of the issues mentioned in the question. CentsAbility works with children in underprivileged schools to teach them how to manage their finances. This is important for these children’s future when they may come from economically unsound environments and may not know how to go about achieving their dreams, part of which is making and saving money. Socially, I believe that this opportunity allows me to engage with these children and not just teach them but learn who they are and about their culture, backgrounds, and goals. As far as politics are concerned, my mother is a school teacher so I am  keenly aware of the budgetary problems in schools and general issues with the education system but am interested about learning of the politics and inner workings of the NYC school system in depth.

5. Is this community service experience related to topics/issues you have discussed in any of your classes? Explain.

The work that CentsAbility does is not directly related to what I have learned so far in any of my classes. However, I am planning on majoring in IO psychology. I will be graduating with a business degree, therefore, the understanding of finances is vital. Furthermore, and IO psychologist researchers and tries to understand behaviors, ethics, attitudes and how they can be improved through training programs, feedback systems, hiring practices, work motivation, etc. This volunteer opportunity will be a sort of stepping stone to my career of working with people in a position of leadership.

-Sofya Moshkovich

Wednesday was my last day teaching for this semester. The lesson was about the Stock Market and some advanced terms. I spoke about the key points of investing in a stock market and reviewed terms from the previous lesson. Some of the terms were unfamiliar to me since I did not take any Finance courses, but I hope to contribute new and insightful information to the class in the semesters to come after I take these courses. It was a great experience to teach and I look forward to next semester. It has helped me be more confident speaking in front of  a group of people, and taught me some new information about the Stock Market and what to look for when I plan on investing in the future. 

The advanced stock market material went a little above my head. I have yet to take a finance course and although I have a general idea of what the terminology is, it was quite a different thing trying to communicate those ideas to a classroom. For instance, I focused on Apple Inc. and how you would value Apple’s stock by discussing the price earning’s ratio and earnings per share. But to be honest, I think most of that stuff is really too complicated for a basic financial literacy course. I would think that the most important thing to know is why you would invest in Apple in the first place. What factors do you look into to make that decision? What is stock? Why do companies issue stock? I think these questions provide an equally important foundation. Who cares what a companies price earnings ratio is if you don’t know why you invest in stock in the first place. Anyway, I guess I have some stuff to work on for next semester and I am excited to improve in my approach to teaching.  This has been a wonderful and unique experience so far and I am glad to continue it. Till next semester!

In order to invest in a stock market, you need to be familiar with the terms and understand statistics and what they represent. I spoke about the the stock ticker, the stock price, the volume which is the number of shares traded in that day, the 52 week range which represents the high and low of the stock prices in the last year, the percentage which shows the change in the stock price from the previous day and other essential statistics that people should familiarize themselves with before investing in a stock market. After explaining the key terms, I read an example to the class and asked how much they would be willing to pay for the lemonade stand. We were cut short on time because of the Thanksgiving schedule. I look forward to hearing what the students are willing to pay and their explanations. Next week is our last lesson. I wish the program was longer because it was a joy teaching the students.

The stock market and all market terminology is not easy information to convey to students without a business background. Yes stock might be ownership in a company and a stock market might be just like a regular market, but it’s hard to overcome some of the layers of complexity. I really tried to tackle making the stock market material as simple as possible this past Wednesday, but I think I did not do my best in tying some of the intricate concepts together. One such idea I did not make as clear as I could have in retrospect was the idea that a stock market is essentially like a market place where buyers and sellers exchange financial instruments. I tried to say that a stock market was similar to an ice cream market in which buyers and sellers traded ice cream, but it is hard to say whether I got my point across. In a way, however, I am thankful because now I really need to go back to this material for next semester and make sure I am spot on. Last week is our last class and I am a little upset. I really look forward to teaching every week. Maybe I should rethink being an accountant J.

This week, I spoke about asset allocation and how you shouldn’t “put all your eggs in one basket.” In other words, you should diversify and invest in stocks, certificate of deposits, bonds and other assets rather than just invest in stocks which can result in you losing all your money. If you diversify, even if one investment brings you losses, other investments can bring you profits.  The class analyzed an example and determined the appropriate asset allocation for an individual. Some of the determinants of where this individual should allocate his assets were liquidity, age, tolerance and uniqueness. We allocated based on three categories- aggressive, moderate and conservative. Aggressive meant that this investor was only interested in earning high profits and did not mind taking a high risk, moderate meant that this investor was interested in a moderate return and moderate risk and conservative meant that this investor was interested in a low return and no risk. The students were engaged in the lesson. I look forward to next week’s lesson.

<!– /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:Calibri; panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-520092929 1073786111 9 0 415 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:””; margin-top:0in; margin-right:0in; margin-bottom:10.0pt; margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:”Calibri”,”sans-serif”; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-family:”Calibri”,”sans-serif”; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} .MsoPapDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; margin-bottom:10.0pt; line-height:115%;} @page WordSection1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;} –>

I came back to Centability this week after a little hiatus. Two weeks ago, the teacher was absent and last week I had to host an event at Hunter. The material  I covered today was on advanced investments. Specifically, I spoke about asset allocation and why we diversify our assets. But before I dived into the complex details, I tried to ask the students why we need to invest in the first place. In line with what we had taught them in previous classes, they suggested that we needed to invest to meet our goals. While this was certainly true, I imparted that there was an even more basic reason behind investing. Quite simply, we are just not going to be able to work for the rest of our lives. Many of us wont work passed when we can start receiving social security at sixty-five. So without an income, the question then becomes do you want to live off your social security or do you want to live a comfortable life? If you answered the latter, then chances are that you are going to need to invest because just keeping your money under your bed isn’t going to do the trick. I also spoke about how diversification allows you to lower your investment risks. Say you only invested in Microsoft stock and then one day it was revealed that Microsoft had been cooking the books and the company went under? There goes your life’s savings. Wouldn’t it have been smarter to invest different companies, foreign markets or in different types of assets? Yes. While I went into greater depth about these two topics, this was the gist of what I spoke abut. And for the first time since I started working with Centsability, I felt that the students were really engaged. I am excited for next week’s lesson on the stock market.

Today the lesson went well. The students seemed eager to learn about investments and mostly the entire class participated in the discussion and asked questions. I introduced the topic of investments with a quote by David Bach, a personal finance author, who said that financial education should not only be for the rich kids but it should also be taught to the lower class. I agree with the quote because most people will open up a credit card or want to invest in something at some point in their life and if they have the opportunity to learn about investment and finance, they will make better choices and decisions. After reading and discussing the quote, I went into detail about the two primary factors, risk and return, when making an investment decision. Overall, the lesson went well and I was happy to see that students were interested in this topic.

On November 3, all the volunteers met at Washington Irving High School, excited to teach Investments and learned that the teacher was absent. We waited next to the security desk for 20 minutes to find out that the teacher was absent and we would not teach that day. I was upset that we were not notified earlier. Hopefully next time we will be notified of the change and the substitute teacher will be aware to tell the security to let us in.