Allensworth 2012

Allen and Josephine Allensworth, founders of Black California town Allensworth.

 

Yesterday, the Bigger Than Your Block team was very honored to be part of the Juneteenth Celebration at Allensworth State Historic Park. Financial Education Speaker & Author Shay Olivarria gave a wonderful speech on building a solid financial foundation based on learning about personal finance, sharing information about personal finance, and learning to pass on wealth to future generations. During the speech participants laughed and really interacted with Shay. When she came off of the stage people kept coming up to the table to speak with her, congradulate her on a job well done, share why she was a different type of financial education speaker, and find out what the Rule of 72 is! Kids took part in the financial education cross word puzzles and word search puzzles for prizes. Adults took home copies of the referral sheet that could net them $250 for referring an organization to Bigger Than Your Block. It was a wonderful day.

Allensworth is sometimes called The Town That Wouldn’t Die because of the tenacity of the people that settled there. The drummers mentioned that Black history is a living thing. We have to remember our history, and contribute to it for the next generations. I’m Black & I Travel says, the Allensworth family created a Black town in central California

.. Allensworth turned his eyes west. He wanted to create a town where black families could own their own homes, their own land, run their own farms and control their own destinies ..

It’s up to us to keep Allensworth alive. For those of you that haven’t been to Allensworth yet, we thought we’d share a few photos to motivate you to come up and celebrate next year.

There were tons of vendors, BBQ, ice cream, and people! Buses of folks kept coming up. It was good to see kids running around and folks hanging out under the trees.

 

The plaque reads:Elizabeth Dougherty, a wealthy Oakland business woman, purchased the property and financed the construction of the hotel in 1910. The hotel was her investment in Allensworth, but she did not live here….”

 

Mary Jane Bickers arrived in Allensworth in 1909 and opened the town’s first business, a general store.

 

If you’d like to read a bit more about Allensworth visit VirtualTourist.com. See you next year!

 

Baldwin Park Student Wins Scholarship He Didn’t Apply For

Raymond Tinajero just earned a $1,000 scholarship for being financially literate.

Raymond Tinajero just won a $1,000 scholarship that he didn’t apply for. When he scored in the top 10% in the nation on the National Financial Capabilities Challenge he was selected randomly by the Charles Schwab Foundation to get the $1,000 scholarship and a $1,000 grant for his school.

It all started with a financial education workshop from SCE Federal Credit Union in his Virtual Enterprise and Economics classes at his high school in Baldwin Park, CA facilitated by financial education speaker and author Shay Olivarria. According to SCE Federal Credit Union Foundation Manager Abby Ulm, “we facilitate between 40-50 financial education classes at BPHS each year”. SCE Federal Credit Union partners with schools in the community to help students become better acquainted with personal finance. “With an understanding of financial basics, such as budgeting, saving, investing and credit, these young people can avoid common money mistakes and experience financial success in their future”, says Ms. Ulm. Make no mistake about it, helping students helps us all.  Ulm is quick to add, “More financially savvy young people will result in a brighter financial future for all of us”.

 

Baldwin Park Students Score in Top 20% on National Financial Capabilities Challenge

 

After participating in classes on budgeting, credit, investing, insurance, and other personal finance topics Raymond took the National Financial Capabilities Challenge at school. His teacher, Mr. Craig Peacock, made sure that all of the students in his Virtual Enterprise class took the online test during class. Ulm thinks that high school is a great time to teach financial education, “By high school, most students have begun to experience what it’s like to have and spend their own money. Yet they are still sheltered from the aggressive credit solicitations and advertising gimmicks that become financial pitfalls for college students and young adults. In a sense, high school students are “clean slates,” financially speaking. It is the perfect time for them to learn the right way to manage money, how to build and protect their credit, and how to develop smart money habits”.

According to the Charles Schwab Foundation’s website, “ Scholarships of $1,000 each to 20 students selected by lottery from among the top 10 percent highest-scoring students nationally. In addition, five $1,000 scholarships will go to students who score in the top 10 percent among all participating students who attend low-income public schools. The Charles Schwab Foundation also gives grants of $1,000 to the school or organization that contributed to the student’s financial education, in this case Baldwin Park High School.

Raymond will use his $1,000 scholarship to attend Mt. San Antonio College in the fall. He says, “I want to achieve a master’s degree in Kinesiology and I want to be able to give my athletic trainer skills back to the world of sports”.

When asked if he has any tips for next year’s graduating Seniors he says, “All I want to say is that always keep track on all assignments, make sure all deadlines are meet, aim for improvement, and never lose focus of the goal to graduate”.

 

Money Mistakes on Retail Me Not

The dumbest thing Shay ever did with money is a story told at RetailMeNot.com.

Financial Education Speaker & Author Shay Olivarria’s whole career has been built on sharing the mistakes she made with others in hope that those mistakes could be avoided by others. Now, she shares the biggest money mistake of her life with Emma Johnson at Retail Me Not.

Smart people make dumb mistakes all the time. That’s why they’re smart—they learn from their mistakes. Even smarter? Learning from other people’s mistakes! Instead of screwing up your own finances, check out these doozies committed by financial professionals.

Read the article here http://theinsider.retailmenot.com/money-lessons.html