Econcepts | Archives | 2014

Future leaders hone leadership, financial literacy, resume and interview skills at the Fed

Date July 31, 2014

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We’ve been busy at the SF Fed’s Los Angeles Branch! On Tuesday and Wednesday of last week, 96 youth from the Academy of Business Leadership (ABL) visited for sessions on mentoring, financial literacy lessons, and resume and job interview skills.

Thursday saw the arrival of 42 members from the Girl Scouts of Greater Los Angeles for a similar experience. Both events were designed to develop leadership skills and to encourage careers in banking, business, finance, and economics.

In his welcoming remarks to the ABL audience, Roger Replogle, SF Fed Senior Vice President and Los Angeles Branch Manager, advised the young audience: “Learn to run to the fire – that’s where you find opportunity to grow, learn, and help. Don’t look for the easy path. Look for the hard one.” He shared stories of successes and failures, both personal and professional, and lessons learned.

Lise Luttgens, CEO of the Girl Scouts of Greater Los Angeles, provided welcoming remarks for the Girl Scouts event and stressed that “gender is no barrier to financial literacy and independence.”

Students and Money – The 2012 PISA results

Date July 23, 2014

Posted by Jody Hoff

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This week we wanted to take a deeper dive into the recent PISA financial literacy assessment by looking at the test framework and reviewing a snapshot of student performance across the 18 countries that participated.

What is Financial Literacy? – PISA Definition

Financial literacy is knowledge and understanding of financial concepts and risks, and the skills, motivation and confidence to apply such knowledge and understanding in order to make effective decisions across a range of financial contexts, to improve the financial well-being of individuals and society, and to enable participation in economic life. (via)

The Students and Money Framework

The financial literacy assessment consisted of a total of 40 questions organized into three broad perspectives: content, processes, and context. Under each of these perspectives, four categories of questions were then identified. These 12 categories formed the PISA “framework” for measuring financial literacy, see table below:

OECD PISA Looks at Students and Money and Asks: What’s the Level of Understanding?

Date July 16, 2014

Posted by Rema Oxandaboure

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The OECD PISA international assessment of financial literacy released last week reveals that around one in seven students in the 13 OECD participating countries and economies are unable to make even simple decisions about everyday spending, and only one in ten can solve complex financial tasks.

So, to answer the question posed in this post’s title: Not very high.

What was this study about?

Teacher Spotlight: Cheryl Shea

Date July 9, 2014

Posted by Rema Oxandaboure

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We are excited to launch the first post of our Spotlight series, where we’ll talk with teachers who are making a difference in the field of economic education.

Our first feature is on Cheryl Shea, who teaches high school business, marketing, entrepreneurship, and financial literacy at Pinnacle High School in Phoenix, Arizona. She is affiliated with their local community college district, so her students are able to obtain Dual Enrollment college credit. Cheryl has also been a DECA advisor for seven years.

Here is what she said.

How Do You Inspire Others to Become an Entrepreneur?

Date July 2, 2014

Posted by Rema Oxandaboure

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Photo credit: Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College

Riley Ennis, 20, is the CEO of a biotechnology startup, Immudicon LLC. In high school, Riley worked for three years on a cancer vaccine that teaches the immune cells of the body to recognize and remove tumors. Immudicon is focused on further research and licensing the cancer vaccine platform technology. Riley is currently a junior at Dartmouth College, where he is double majoring in economics and biomedical engineering.

We asked Riley what advice he would give to other young people who have aspirations in business.

Here’s what he said.