The Personal in Personal Finance: Our Conversation with the University of Saint Anthony
“Poor people have poor ways.” Tension in the audiovisual room grew as the University of St. Anthony students from various business courses debated this controversial statement. You might be surprised at how Camalig Bank’s personal finance crash course participants passionately voiced their opinions on this idea, which many of us have likely pondered.
A participant who agreed said that not everyone has enough to obtain a better lifestyle, considering the difficulty of looking for opportunities and the priorities and responsibilities they have to attend to. On the other hand, those who disagreed pointed out that there are stories that can testify that even if you are born into a low-income family, people can strive to surpass that level.
Our opinion and how our perspective teaches us to be more compassionate. If you encountered this sentence, what would your take be?
We at Camalig Bank regularly visit colleges and universities and discuss complex financial topics with students. On 7 May 2024, we visited the University of St. Anthony. In the morning, we started with a brief introduction to financial literacy and its importance. We also talked about topics like saving and debt.
At first, the students hesitated to speak up during our discussion in the morning. It started with them writing their questions on paper and passing them to us. Still, as we dug deeper into the topics and my fellow Camalig Bankers personally engaged in the discussion, more and more students confidently joined in, especially on topics where we asked for personal experiences and tips on handling finances.
In the afternoon, the program was followed by an open floor conversation we named “The Personal in Personal Finance,” where students eagerly shared their viewpoints on the hypothetical problems we prepared. Witnessing the students open up about their situations during the afternoon talk indicates that they can absorb the topics discussed in the morning session. Moreover, the students care about current societal financial issues. It's also good to see that even our fellow Camalig Bankers actively participate in the segment, sharing their opinions and advice from a different perspective.
As a Camalig Banker for more than a year, it has been a fulfilling experience to contribute to fueling the students' curiosity; at the same time, this event also fueled my knowledge, as I learned from both a student's and an educator's perspective on the many situations that were raised during that day.
With all this being said, we realized that our efforts have significantly impacted. This realization encourages us to have more conversations about these topics because, through this, we could encourage each other to start saving and even break the stigma and misconceptions about banking and related issues. Camalig Bank looks forward to more partnerships to make this objective possible.
