Last week and this week are full of me “giving back” to the community. Last Thursday, I attended an Indiana State University Financial Planning Advisory Board meeting where we answered students’ questions and had lunch with some of them, this Thursday I will be at Eminence Elementary School for 4th & 5th Grade Career Day where I believe other middle school and high school teachers may be expecting me to speak to their classes as well, and on Friday I will be participating in Student Day with the Financial Planning Association of Greater Indiana. I have a hard time calling these types of things “giving back”, but that’s what others call them so I’ll stick with it.
Financial Planning Advisory Board Meeting
In November 2015, I was asked to serve on the Indiana State University Financial Planning Advisory Board. Being asked to serve on the Board was shocking to me at the time since I had just graduated in May, but I quickly accepted as I saw it as an opportunity to hopefully help students in the Financial Planning program at ISU as well as urge positive changes within the university that allowed me many amazing opportunities.
Our board meeting on Thursday was a little different than most board meetings that I’ve been a part of. We arrived at the Scott College of Business and the four board members in attendance sat as a panel in the Financial Planning Capstone class. We were asked to elaborate on some questions from someone from the Career Center and then it was turned over to students to ask questions of us. All of the questions the students asked were great and very insightful and they seemed to be happy to have the opportunity to pick the brains of those in the profession that they’re considering.
After the class was over, we headed to lunch where students were invited to eat and speak with us. There were a surprising number of kids there (probably because there was a free lunch), but I think that most of those in attendance were really there to take advantage of the opportunity and learn. I wish that I had taken more advantage of opportunities like this when I was in college and I was very happy to see all of the students who did.
Career Day
Career day with 4th and 5th graders. I’m way more nervous about this than the Financial Planning Advisory Board Meeting or Student Day with FPA. I still have to figure out how to explain to kids what a financial planner does and how to relate that back to their lives. Hopefully I can teach them something.
Wish me luck.
Student Day With FPA
I’ve been a part of Student Day with the FPA for 3 years now from helping with the students that Market Street hosted in 2017 to running Market Street’s Student Day in 2018 and being with the students the entire day to taking more of a backseat in 2019 but still helping out. This is another great way for college students throughout the state to get a little taste of the financial planning world and see if it’s right for them where they take the day to shadow a financial planner.
I’m not sure how other firms approach the day, but Market Street tries to expose students to all sides of the business from a high level overview of different types of financial planning companies to career trajectory to the financial planning side of the business and the investment management side of the business as well as other things. The students get a ton of information throughout the day (maybe too much) and I truly believe that it’s very valuable to them and should help them to get a much better understanding of the industry as a whole as well as the different jobs and duties within a financial planning company.
That’s a lot of explaining what I do.
