SMART Career Club, an organization founded by Valencia Broadus (Ms. V), collaborated with Edward Jones, KC Black Archives, and several small business owners in the KC Metro area to help students master critical personal finance skills using the game of Jeopardy while allowing me to share a few insights from Make It Rain.
One of my favorite quotes from Make It Rain is “The More You Learn…The More You’ll Earn!”. This year the Founder of SMART Career Club (Ms. V) is focused on enhancing her students’ personal finance skills and those of their families.
With the help of Edward Jones, Mrs. V employed a very creative approach using the game of Jeopardy to teach (test) students personal finance, banking, investing, credit and budgeting skills. After two weeks of self-paced study, the students (contestants) arrived at the Black Archives Museum off Vine Street in KCMO on Saturday morning ready to compete in a game of Financial Jeopardy for scholarship prizes. (See pics from the event below).
SMART Career Club’s mission is to help students in the KC Metro Area (Missouri & Kansas) stay Motivated to Achieve greater things in life while mentoring them to Resist Truancy (skipping or dropping out of school) and avoiding other pitfalls of life due to poor decisions. The club also offers ACT college preparation classes to ensure students around the Metro achieve above-average scores and increased access to scholarship money for college.
With the support of some amazing event sponsors all six contestants participating in SMART Career Club’s 1st Annual Financial Jeopardy contest received $200 in scholarship money and the Final Jeopardy round winner received a scholarship award of $750. Additionally, each student and their 4 support team members received a copy of Make It Rain to help them continue honing their personal finance skills. Not a bad haul for two weeks’ worth of work!
Special Thanks To Our SMART Career Club Sponsors!
GOLD LEVEL
Black Archives of Mid-America in Kansas City
Brian Ross, Financial Advisor, Edward Jones Investments
Vercie Lark, Author of Make It Rain: Increase Your Wealth and Financial Security
SILVER LEVEL
Renaissance Management & Training Solutions, LLP
Black Economic Union of Greater Kansas City
SMART Learning – 20 in 2020 Anniversary Celebration Committee
BRONZE LEVEL
Broadus Law Office, LLC
James Coleman Accounting
Jordan Law, LLC
Wings ‘N Things Express
To keep the students motivated and ensure they apply the skills learned over the winter break Ms. V, the Founder of SMART Career Club has already given them new challenges of reading Make It Rain to prepare for a future discussion and starting an investment club to reinforce sound budgeting, spending and investing habits with their family’s support while still in school. I’ll be working with my new friend at Edward Jones and Ms. V (Valencia Broadus) over the next few weeks to help bring their investment club vision to life.
It was awesome to see Ms. V work with the students and their family members to successfully tackle the personal challenge of acquiring new life skills to handle life’s financial challenges. What a great Saturday morning, indeed!
Let’s Make It Rain: If you’re interested in connecting with Ms. V to learn more about her SMART Career Club, become a volunteer or donor, or get tips to host a similar event for your favorite organization (church, school, company, etc.) click to contact me and let’s make it happen. Working together we will create a new generation of philanthropic Rain Makers across the KC Metro!
As a parent of one of the participants, I was extremely impressed with this event. My son was able to gain an in-depth grasp of financial concepts that will assist him as he completes his college studies and beyond. The students were able to put their learnings into action as they were quizzed (Jeopardy-style) on multiple financial topics such as financial basics, budgeting, banking, investments, stocks and subjects related to post graduation. The “Make It Rain” book by Vercie Lark provided an easy to grasp overview of financial areas that most young adults need to know to develop positive habits to become fiscally independent. The financial coaches provided guidance for the participants that utilized their vast knowledge and experience in the field of finance.
I would highly recommend this program to families and support members in order to gain a firmer grasp of the areas necessary to become wealthy in the future. The book, “Make it Rain” was made available to the support members. It can be used in an academic setting for school entrepreneurship programs and high school budgeting courses, as well as college financial organizations. Local school districts would be wise to incorporate it into their curriculum.
Thank you again for such an insightful experience. We will definitely continue to participate in this worthwhile club in the future.
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