Learn more about the Schwab Center for Financial Wellness
Morgan Cain, a Business Administration major, and Dr. Preston Cherry, Assistant Professor of Finance and Personal Financial Planning, are founders of the Charles Schwab Center for Financial Wellness, a service provided by UW-Green Bay to promote financial wellness in the community and help people on their financial journeys. Cain is a peer mentor at the Center, an experience which has been very beneficial to her academic and professional development. She is also the president of the Personal Financial Planning Association, a student organization on campus built around the idea of financial wellness.
Cain discusses how it’s a bit easier for students to come to them facing financial problems, and how heartening it is to give them the tools to solve their own financial questions and problems. Cain says, “I have interacted with students who were in a struggle with a certain financial aspect, and so they came to the Center for Financial Wellness to get that question answered. We’re very easy to talk to because we are students, so the pressure kind of goes away.” According to Dr. Cherry the Center is so successful at outreach and helping others because it “is not only a room or a physical space, it’s a place that we can go out to. So, it’s more of a philosophy and a service of help and outreach, more than just a physical space.”
Learn more about the Center for Financial Wellness here.
Transcript: PRESTON CHERRY: Well, we want to build a place of trust and engagement so people can come in and feel belonged and learn about their personal finances. So, we give financial education so people can take that away and do better with their financial wellness. Feel better about their money. MORGAN CAIN: In my experience working as a peer coach, I have interacted with students who were in a struggle with a certain financial aspect. And so they came to the Center for Financial Wellness to get that question answered. We’re very easy to talk to because we are students. So that pressure kind of goes away, so, like you wouldn’t have to be talking to like your parents or like, another professional where maybe you do have to also pay for that service. So, the service is completely free and it’s also low pressure. PRESTON CHERRY: So, the students that are pursuing the career of financial planning, they get to utilize their skills and pass on that knowledge to those that want help with their own personal finances. So, they can come in person in the Center, or online. MORGAN CAIN: I have witnessed these students enter with a problem and leave with some of their own education to make their own path forward. It’s very heartening to see someone come to you with a problem and then leave with that problem, maybe not fixed, but you give them the tools to actually do the fix and continue fixing in their financial journey. PRESTON CHERRY: In the community we give personal finance workshops. So they’re 90 minutes, and we go in for an hour, share financial education information, and then for 30 minutes we have this Q&A. So they’re able to have takeaways to utilize in their life immediately. And then we’ll be back because they can either sign up for another presentation or we outreach the next time and go to where they are and say, “how are these things working?” So, the Center is not only a room or a physical space, it’s a place that we can go out to. So, it’s more of a philosophy and a service of help and outreach more than just a physical space.
