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Financial Education
Knowledge is your greatest asset. SM
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Highlights
Citigroup Financial Education Program
 
Highlights for January 2005
 
NATIONAL
 
Financial Education Partnerships: Junior Achievement - Orange County, CA
  • In January, Smith Barney officially launched its 2005 Financial Education Initiative supported by a $1 million commitment through its charitable grant programs, as well as an expansion of these programs to support it. The firm will leverage its proprietary financial education curriculum for middle school students, which qualified employees continue to use to teach children in their community about financial markets and the fundamentals of investing.
  • A version of this curriculum was used in a pilot program in the Fall of 2004, in which Smith Barney Financial Consultants and Junior Achievement teamed up to bring the curriculum to 19 classrooms throughout Orange County. The three-day program concluded with a Stock Portfolio Contest, which ran for eight weeks. Gregory Laetsch, Smith Barney Executive Vice President and Regional Director of Southern California announced the winners at a closing ceremony in Anaheim, CA, on December 11th. Over 200 students, parents, teachers and school administrators attended the event, and discounted Disney tickets were available to all attendees.
  • This year, Smith Barney will continue to identify non-profit organizations for strategic partnerships, and support employee-driven financial education programs with marketing resources and charitable grants.
Junior Achievement of Southern California
  • January 4th in Los Angeles, Maura Markus, President of Citibank North America, presented a $100,000 check from the Citigroup Foundation, Citibank (West) and Smith Barney to Gary Hickman, Executive Director of Junior Achievement of Southern California, to support the implementation of JA programs in local high schools and middle schools. The grant includes $51,000 from the Citigroup Foundation and $9,000 from Citibank (West) for high school based financial literacy and workforce preparation programs and $40,000 from Smith Barney to administer the Young Investor’s Education Program to Orange County middle grade students and to support JA high school programs.
  • Junior Achievement’s high school programs for students in grades 9-12 include economic and business curricula as well as a student-led enterprise. Middle school students in grades 5-9 will have the opportunity to participate in Smith Barney’s Young Investor’s Education Program, which includes its proprietary curriculum, taught by Smith Barney Financial Consultants.
  • Through Citibank’s unique partnership with JA of Southern California, JA volunteers will deliver these vital lessons to over 1,800 high school students throughout Southern California.
US Treasury Department’s Financial Literacy and Education Commission
  • January 13th in Washington, Dara Duguay, Director of the Office of Financial Education, delivered a “best practice” presentation on Citigroup's Financial Education Program at the quarterly meeting of the Treasury Department’s Financial Literacy and Education Commission.
  • The Financial Literacy and Education Commission was established under Title V of the FACT Act. The Commission is comprised of 18 federal government agencies working to encourage government and private sector efforts to promote financial literacy. This year, the Commission plans to unveil a national strategy to promote financial literacy in America.
Metropolitan Atlanta YMCA
  • January 18th in Atlanta, Barbara King, Executive Vice President, Primerica Financial Services, presented a $25,000 check from the Citigroup Foundation, on behalf of Citigroup’s Georgia subsidiaries, to Fred Bradley, Metro Atlanta YMCA President and CEO, to support financial education programs at the Decatur-DeKalb Family YMCA and the J.M. Tull-Gwinnett Family YMCA in Lawrenceville. The YMCA after-school program will be available to over 200 children and their families.
  • Using the Citigroup Financial Education Curriculum, YMCA staff will teach children ageappropriate financial concepts and skills and local Citigroup employees will have an opportunity to volunteer to assist teaching the adult workshops. Childcare will be provided for parents during the adult workshops.
  • Lisa Fogarty from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta and David Martin of the Georgia Council on Economic Education joined students, teachers, YMCA officials and Citigroup representatives at the Decatur YMCA.
  • Citigroup’s Georgia subsidiaries include Primerica, Smith Barney, CitiFinancial, CitiStreet, Citi Cards, CitiCapital, TransSouth and Citigroup Global Corporate & Investment Bank.
Fed Challenge
  • January 26th in New York, Mike Reardon, CEO of the Student Loan Corporation, announced that the Student Loan Corporation will be the sole provider of $215,000 in scholarships, awards and grants for the 11th annual Fed Challenge. High school students around the country will earn up to $7,000 in college scholarships in The Fed Challenge, a national high school economics competition sponsored by eight Reserve Banks and Branches in the Federal Reserve System. This is the eighth year Citibank has provided scholarships, awards and grants.
  • In The Fed Challenge, student teams work together to analyze factors influencing the U.S. economy and develop presentations explaining their monetary policy recommendations before current members of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC). These teams compete first at local and Federal Reserve District or Branch levels in late winter and early spring. District winners then advance to The Fed Challenge national semi-final and final rounds of competition held in Washington, DC in May.
  • This year, for the first time, schools whose teams are first runners-up at the District level will win Citibank’s District Runner-Up Prize. Checks for $2,500 will be paid to each school to further the teaching of economics for all their students. All recipients will receive awards based solely on their performance in this competition. In addition, Citibank will also offer a special Novice Team Award (up to $2,000 in each participating District or Branch) to encourage schools that have either never advanced beyond the first round of competition, or have never participated in The Fed Challenge. Details about the Novice Award program are available from each participating Federal Reserve District Bank or Branch.
Moneyville
  • January 29th in St. Louis, Dara Duguay, Director of Citigroup’s Office of Financial Education, participated in the media preview of Moneyville, a traveling financial education exhibit, at The Magic House, St. Louis Children’s Museum. The exhibit, which is sponsored locally by a grant from the Citigroup Foundation, will run until May.
  • Moneyville uses the fascinating subject of money to build math skills and promote economic literacy in a fun, immersive setting. Throughout the exhibit, children discover how money is made, spent, earned and saved, and how it connects people around the world. They explore the history, science and culture behind monetary systems and start to see money in a whole new way.
  • In addition, Citigroup teamed up with the St. Louis Post Dispatch Foundation for eight weeks of ads promoting the exhibit and financial education that will run in the business section.
FINANCIAL EDUCATION TRAINING
To date, 344 employees and 604 non-profit partner staff have undergone training to teach financial education using the Citigroup Financial Education Curriculum. Sacramento Non-Profits
  • December 3rd in Sacramento, Mary Hogarty, Community Relations Director, California Central Valley/Nevada Region for Citibank West (FSB), organized a financial education Train-the-Trainer seminar for 32 representatives from 19 local non-profit organizations at the Greater Sacramento Urban League. Three local Citibank employees from the West Sacramento campus also participated.
  • Greg Meyer, Community Relations Officer, instructed participants on how to use the Citigroup Financial Education Curriculum to teach financial education to their constituents which include immigrants, teens and younger children, first-time homebuyers, parolees, foster children and foster parents, church members and prospective small business owners.
  • Two employees gave presentations. Bank@Work specialist Judy Couch discussed the Access Account and Robert Meyer, Sacramento IRS Territory Manager, discussed the Earned Income Tax Credit.
  • To date, the Greater Sacramento Urban League has trained 48 people using the Citigroup Financial Education Curriculum. In July 2004, the National Urban League received a $900,000, three-year grant from the Citigroup Foundation to support financial education programs in San Diego and 5 other cities.
Citigroup Asian Pacific Heritage Network
  • January 21st in New York City, Stacey Sechrest Carder, Deputy Director of the Office of Financial Education, led a financial education training seminar for members of the Citigroup Asian Pacific Heritage Network (CAPHN). Using the Citigroup Financial Education Curriculum, 20 attendees learned how to teach others basic banking skills.
  • CAPHN will work with the New York Asian Women's Center to educate their constituents about basic banking services. Financial education training will also be part of CAPHN's ongoing community outreach activities.
City Year
  • January 28th in New York City, Stacey Sechrest Carder, Deputy Director of the Office of Financial Education, used the Citigroup Financial Education Curriculum to teach 80 City Year interns credit basics. City Year interns spend their Fridays learning important life skills including financial education.
INTERNATIONAL
 
University Of Edinburgh Management School
  • January in Edinburgh, the University of Edinburgh launched a financial education program at the University’s Management School. The program is supported by a US$50,000 (£27,000) grant from the Citigroup Foundation. The Management School at the University of Edinburgh is one of the leading schools in the UK, offering a range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses including an MBA program.
  • The grant will support the creation of two case studies in finance and investment, a lecture series, post-graduate research projects and teaching aids including financial software and databases. In addition, the grant will support the recently launched MSc in Finance and Investment, which prepares students for a career in finance by providing practical and theoretical knowledge in a range of areas including corporate finance, investment and global financial markets.