College of Business Administration

GROUP MEMBERS:

Jessica Vorburger
Ali Katoozian
Julie Dominguez
Amy Curry

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

Investing in the youth is truly investing into the future. Many of the youth in urban areas lack positive guides. Knowledge is power, and for many kids, education may be their only way out of a life of poverty. Therefore, it is the social responsibility of those such as us, to intervene and offer assistance to the youth. We made a commitment to the Financial Literacy project at Hoover High. We decided this would be a wonderful opportunity to work with high school freshman at Hoover High School while investing in their future. Without our help, and the help of the community, the less advantaged kids of society could remain so. We have an ethical responsibility to assist the youth who are in need. Ironically, we are also helping ourselves. By helping those kids, kids, we are giving them hope. Perhaps, they’ll go to college rather than dropping out of school. In doing so, they become contributing members of society.

The Financial Literacy Program is a program at Hoover High, designed to give young teenagers an introduction of what to expect in the near future as they graduate from high school and move into adulthood. The program teaches students the value of money, the importance of budgeting, financial planning, and shows them the importance of continuing education beyond high school. The ultimate goal is for them to be financially responsible and to make rational financial and educational decisions in the future.

There are several ethical frameworks underlying this project. First is the ethic of care, because we value the moral worth of our relationships with the students at Hoover High. Deontology also played a role, because our actions are right or wrong, regardless of the ultimate outcome. We have a responsibility not to make the least advantages members of society even more so, so we put forth a genuine effort to better the situation of these individuals. More than likely, our actions may also result in the greatest good for the greatest number (utilitarianism), but that’s not what inspired us to do this. We were motivated because we feel that this project enforces justice, by giving each person his or her due. We also satisfied the libertarianism view, because our actions will maximize the capacity for free, informed personal choice of these young adults.

The benefits of this project will greatly outweigh the costs. We put a total of 52 hours of actual physical help into the project. Our transportation time and cost of gas totaled 35 hours. In addition, writing in our journals, e mailing each other and writing this paper took about 24 hours. The total time spent on this project is 111 hours. We calculate our costs based on an average of our hourly salary at our jobs, $15.00. This is what we feel our actual time is worth, per hour. We put in about 111 hours into this project, so our total costs= $1665.00. We calculate the benefits based on a long-term perspective. If just one of the kids we helped ends up going to college, then our time was well worth it. The average salary for an adult without a high school diploma is $20,723. The average annual income of a high school graduate is 34,373. While some of the results of this project may be unseen for years to come, one student was so excited about the program, that he opened a savings account. Perhaps one of these students may become CEO of some large firm or organization. Even if they only graduate high school, and better their lives, then our time was well spent. We also need to take into account the intrinsic, non-quantitative value of this project. We helped the students increase their esteem and confidence in the financial arena. We also may have helped decrease the future social costs to society, for high school drop outs, by teaching them to be financially reliable and responsible.

We were excited and enthusiastic about this project. We feel that the project was an overall success. The final class meeting assignment summarized what we had been teaching the kids all along-the true value of money. Through that assignment, it became apparent to the students that completion of high school is a must, and, in fact, college, or at least for the first two years of college, is the minimum, if they are to survive financially in the future. Hopefully, they’ll take the memories and experience of this project with them into their adulthood, and use it to make wise financial and educational decisions.