Financial Literacy Program, Led by RIC Alum, Seeks to Lift Underserved Out of Poverty
Marcy Reyes ’12 (pictured above, right), adjunct professor of finance at Rhode Island College and founder and executive director of the Financial Literacy Youth (FLY) Initiative, has been a pioneer in bringing much-needed financial literacy programming to underserved and underrepresented youth in Rhode Island.
“We focus on the underserved and underrepresented because there are no robust financial education courses in inner city schools, yet this is the demographic that could benefit from it the most,” she says.
“Starting this program became a matter of social justice for me,” she went on. “I also saw it as an equity issue. Everyone deals with money. Why don’t we all have access to the same level of education and resources?”
Financial literacy classes teach youth the basics of money management, which lays the foundation for building strong money habits in the future and helps lift families out of the cycle of poverty.
FLY is made up of three educators, who have the highest level of accreditation in financial education. They are bilingual and trained to be culturally responsive. They go into high schools, serving students in 11th and 12th grade, and teach a 10-module course. The course is either provided as an elective or embedded into an existing business course. FLY also works with community agencies such as the YMCA, the Boys & Girls Club and afterschool programs.
To keep coursework relevant for teens, Reyes and her team of instructors begin by asking students to list their top three financial goals. The most common are: to get their own apartment, to put a down payment on a car and to pay for college without a lot of debt.
“Once they’ve set a goal, we help them build a financial plan around it,” Reyes says. “Goals without a plan are just dreams.”
Reyes explains to the teenagers that a financial plan is like GPS coordinates. “To start out on a trip, you first need to know where you are and where you want to go. All the other coordinates in between – like turn left at this light and turn right at that intersection – is your financial plan. They help you reach your goal.”
“If you’re making decisions that aren’t supporting your financial goal, whether it’s you’re banking at a bank that charges monthly fees, which takes money away from your goal, or you didn’t file your taxes and get your tax refund, you’re impacting the goal you’ve set,” Reyes says.
By the end of the course, FLY students are already practicing in the real world the skills they’ve learned in the classroom. “We have students who will come back and say, ‘I went to the bank the other day with my dad to open a checking account. My dad talked to me about overdraft fees, but I already knew everything about them, and I was able to tell my dad things he didn’t know.’”
FLY students leave equipped with enough confidence to make informed financial decisions and help their families make better decisions about money, as well. Ultimately, FLY’s goal is to break the cycle of poverty and to help build stronger families, neighborhoods and communities.
In June 2021 state legislators recognized the importance of financial education for all students in Rhode Island and signed into law the requirement that all high schools offer a personal finance course and that seniors take this course before they graduate.
“FLY will be there to help Rhode Island schools make that transition," Reyes says. “We have accredited, bilingual, culturally responsive educators and a curriculum that aligns with state and national standards.”
She’s already rolling up her sleeves, preparing to expand FLY’s reach.
Marcy Reyes received her B.S. degree in finance at Rhode Island College in 2012 and her M.S. in finance at Northeastern University in 2014.