Co-op Legacy Fellows Bridget Abril and Nidhi Nair

Financial Literacy Week: Invest In Your Future

2022-23 UConn Co-op Legacy Fellowship – Change Grant Project

Project Summary

Change Grant recipients Bridget Abril & Nidhi Nair.Nidhi Nair and Bridget Abril planned and executed Financial Literacy Week — a week-long initiative designed to raise financial literacy rates among UConn undergraduates — in the UConn Student Union campus from April 3rd to April 7th, 2023.

Financial Literacy Week included six events, each targeted towards a different salient aspect of financial education: Monday budgeting table, Tuesday investment lecture, Wednesday debt management lecture, Thursday was both credit table and financial literacy for your career virtual lecture, and Friday financial planning table. The tabling events included interactive games to encourage students to participate and challenge them to learn, while our interactive lectures were partnered events with UConn Alum and Financial Educator Brian Feroldi, Ashley Benner from the Office of Student Financial Aid, and Beth Settje from the Center for Career Development.

Reflecting on the Project

Change Grant recipients Bridget Abril & Nidhi Nair.This project was the culmination of a year-long research project for co-founder Nidhi Nair. Nidhi had been compiling financial literacy rates of the undergraduate student body at the University of Connecticut and she found that only around 43% of undergraduates could correctly answer three basic questions on financial knowledge. Based on this information, she realized that there was significant room for improvement and that a targeted social impact project could help improve financial understanding in the UConn student body. After reaching out to Bridget, Financial Literacy Week became the first Change Grant funded project to provide unique financial literacy resources to students through a mix of lecture and interactive events.

One of the most incredible moments of the advocacy project was working with Christian Sherrill at Next Gen Personal Finance to help pass Rep. Corey Paris’s bill on mandating financial literacy high school graduation requirements in all Connecticut public schools. Furthermore, Nidhi and Bridget had the opportunity to provide resources to almost 400 UConn students who attended Financial Literacy Week events.

Both co-founders were amazed at the widespread interest among students in receiving financial resources. Many attendees of the events reported a continued interest in improving their knowledge in this topic and were invested in finding ways to stay involved with the project. Nidhi and Bridget were assisted by eight volunteers and hope to find ways to involve social impact, research and leadership throughout their careers.

Moving ForwardFinancial Literacy Week: Invest In Your Future.

Despite co-founder Nidhi graduating in 2023, Bridget hopes to continue raising awareness for financial literacy and helping students become financially literate to prepare themselves for life beyond UConn. The goal is that this in itiative becomes an on-campus organization that students who are passionate about financial literacy can join to help bring Financial Literacy Week back to campus each spring. We hope that by continuing to provide these important resources, UConn will be one step closer to preparing its students for life after undergrad.

About Nidhi

Nidhi graduated in 2023 with degrees in Economics and Mathematics-Statistics in the Honors Program. At UConn, she served as the President of the Economics Society, as a UN Millennium Fellow, a COP26 delegate, and as a Residential Assistant. She served on multiple university committees, and after graduating, she will work at the Federal Reserve Board of Governors in Washington DC over the summer. In the fall, she will travel to Beijing for the Schwarzman Scholars program at Tsinghua University for ten months. Reach out to Nidhi at nidhi_jayakumar.nair@uconn.edu with any questions on this project!

About Bridget

Bridget is a senior majoring in Political Science and Economics in the Honors Program. Outside of organizing Financial Literacy Week, she is the Secretary-General of UConn Model UN and the social media coordinator of the Economics Society. She is looking forward to continuing advocating for financial literacy for UConn undergraduates and improving access to personal finance resources in the future!

You can follow UConn Financial Literacy on Instagram to continue receiving updates about financial literacy, or reach out to bridget.abril@uconn.edu if you are interested in working with this initiative in the future.

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