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Financial Education
Knowledge is your greatest asset. SM
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Highlights
Citigroup Financial Education Program
 
Highlights for August 2004
 
NATIONAL
 
Citi Scholastic Award Presentation
  • August 12th in New York City, Amer Sajed, Senior Vice President, Citi Cards; Dara Duguay, Director of Citigroup's Office of Financial Education and Shelley White, Editorial Director of Scholastic Marketing Partners, awarded a total of $35,500, including two $15,000 grand prize scholarships, to the student winners of Citi Scholastic’s national essay contest. Five 2nd prizewinners each received a $700 savings bond for college textbooks. The two teachers of the grand prizewinners each received a $2,500 savings bond toward continuing education classes.
     
  • For the contest, students were asked to provide financial guidance to Bassanio, a character in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, who needs $3,000 to pay for his freshman year at Belmont University.
     
  • Citi in partnership with Scholastic, the global children’s publishing and media company, implemented its award winning Credit-EDSM program in more than 5,200 high schools nationwide, reaching over 3.5MM college bound students this past spring.
     
  • The curriculum, created and developed by Citi in conjunction with Scholastic, provided classroom materials to English teachers and guidance counselors to help 11th and 12th grade students prepare for college with standards-based lessons about money management and writing.
Jacob Riis Settlement House
  • August 13th in Long Island City, the Citigroup Foundation awarded a $25,000 grant to the Jacob Riis Settlement House to launch a financial education program. Jacob Riis provides services to Queensbridge Houses and is the largest public housing development in the country with over 96 buildings and over 15,000 residents.
     
  • Using the Citigroup Financial Education curriculum, five Jacob Riis staff members, who received training earlier this year, taught basic banking skills to 125 children in their summer programs. This fall, Riis will offer quarterly programs to adults in their Parent, Immigration and Senior Programs, that will teach banking, saving, investing, money management, credit, and wealthbuilding strategies. The program is expected to reach an additional 300 students and adults this fall.
     
  • New York City Councilman Eric Gioia attended the event. 15 children participated in the Financial Education program in a classroom setting.
     
  • On January 27, 2004, five Jacob Riis staff members were trained on the Citigroup Financial Education Program with Queens West Financial Center Managers.
Republican National Convention Youth Program
  • August 30th in New York City, Mike Conway, Citigroup Government Affairs, and Dara Duguay, Director of the Office of Financial Education, led a day of activities for 200 members of the Republican National Convention’s Youth Program.
     
  • Speakers included: Dara Duguay, Director of Citigroup’s Office of Financial Education, Margaret Tutwiler, Executive Vice President of the NYSE and Murray Teitelbaum, Education Director of the NYSE. The event also included a tour of the New York Stock Exchange.
FINANCIAL EDUCATION TRAINING
 
Nehemiah Ministries Financial Education Workshop
  • August 20-21st in San Francisco, Citigroup conducted a 2-day Train-the-Trainer workshop on Citigroup's Financial Education Curriculum for eleven Nehemiah Ministries' representatives from the 5th district of the First African Methodist Episcopal Church (First AME) as part of a financial education initiative for children and adults. Financial consultants from Smith Barney and Citicorp Investment Services also received training.
     
  • First AME will deliver the program to hundreds of congregation members in eleven churches throughout the West in Missouri, Washington State, Nevada, and California. Financial consultants from Smith Barney and Citicorp Investment Services will volunteer with the churches by leading seminars and providing technical support for First AME trainers.
     
  • Citigroup’s National Community Relations and the Office of Financial Education developed the training.
INTERNATIONAL
 
Citigroup Australia & YWCA New South Wales Financial Literacy Program
  • August 3rd in Sydney, Citigroup Australia and the YWCA New South Wales (NSW) teamed up for a pilot program to improve the financial literacy of students and adults in three NSW primary schools: Alexandria Park Community, Shalvey Primary and South Lismore Primary. The pilot program was funded with grants from the Citigroup Foundation.
     
  • Students between the ages of 6-12 are participating in a ten-week pilot program that will conclude in October. They are learning about saving, budgeting and wise spending. The five-week pilot program for adults was completed this week.
     
  • The pilot program will be refined and developed with the Department of Education and may become part of the NSW primary school curriculum within 12 months.
     
  • The Daily Telegraph in Australia called the program a “world first.”
Foundation for Teaching Economics Budapest
  • August 4th in Budapest, the Foundation for Teaching Economics (FTE) hosted Economics for Leaders, a free week-long economics program for high school students and teachers, thanks in part to a grant from the Citigroup Foundation. Junior Achievement Hungary, the FTE’s partner in the program, selected 30 students, chosen for their leadership potential, and 30 teachers from across the country to attend and also assisted with the leadership instruction.
     
  • Economics for Leaders is designed to give Hungary’s future leaders a better understanding of the free market system and to give these future leaders the skills to motivate others. During the week, students develop insight into economic behavior, an economic way of thinking about public policy choices, and an appreciation for different leadership styles.
     
  • The program is also carefully designed to give the 30 high school social studies teachers professional development training, showing them how to use interactive teaching techniques to make economics more understandable. Teachers become better educators, leaving with new teaching strategies, a more complete understanding of economic concepts, as well as games, simulations, and materials to make economics exciting to students.
Foundation for Teaching Economics Slovakia
  • August 16th in Slovakia, Citigroup teamed up with the Foundation for Teaching Economics (FTE) and GE to help improve Slovakian education. Contributions from the Citigroup Foundation and the GE Foundation funded an Economics for Leaders program – Summer School of Economics, as it is called in Slovakia - at Hotel Hutnik in Tatranske Matliare for 30 Slovakian high school students, selected for their leadership potential, and 30 Slovakian high school teachers.
     
  • The Foundation for Teaching Economics has been conducting Economics for Leaders programs in Slovakia for the past 8 years with support from the Citigroup Foundation and GE.
     
  • Evaluation shows that both students and teachers leave with a better understanding of the economic forces that play such an important part in every day life. Most importantly, participants leave knowing the importance of distinguishing between value-laden judgments and empirically verifiable ones.
Citigroup Atlas Awards Ceremony
  • August 17th in Chiloe, Citigroup Atlas, a Citigroup Consumer Finance business in Chile, held an awards ceremony for 26 sixth-grade students from the Luis Uribe Diaz School, chosen as the best students in their grade, as a way to educate the children on the work of a financial company.
     
  • Rodrigo Rodriguez, the Castro branch manager, led students on a tour of the Atlas office to give them an understanding of how a branch works and discussed basic financial skills. Citigroup Atlas will conduct these same visits throughout Chile with senior citizens and municipal school students to introduce them to the world of finance.
Foundation for Teaching Economics Prague
  • August 21st in Prague, Citigroup teamed up with the Foundation for Teaching Economics (FTE) to help improve education in the Czech Republic. Contributions from the Citigroup Foundation funded an Economics for Leaders program for 30 Czech high school students, selected for their leadership potential, and 30 Czech high school teachers.
Young Enterprise/Junior Achievement Summer School
  • August 31st in London, Citigroup and Young Enterprise London, a UK registered charity that is part of the worldwide Junior Achievement/Young Enterprise network, hosted a graduation ceremony for 180 students, between the ages of 9-17, who participated in the Young Enterprise/Junior Achievement Summer School Programs in Lambeth, Southwark and Greenwich this summer.
     
  • The Young Enterprise Summer School Program aims to raise awareness of personal finance and to develop entrepreneurial skills. In the 2003-2004 academic year, they reached 32,500 students with funding from the private and public sector. Citigroup supported the program with funding and employee volunteers.
     
  • Michael J. Kirkwood, CCO in the UK, presented certificates to each of the graduates and Citigroup volunteers. Teachers, local government officials and Citigroup volunteers involved in the program also attended.
     
  • Citigroup supports Young Enterprise and Junior Achievement programs on four continents and in more than 30 countries. Close to $5 million has been contributed over the past five years to help expand existing programs and start new ones.