More than 400 area high school students and 35 area educators will attend the eighth annual “Financial Starting Points” conference Friday, April 17 in Kilcawley Center on the campus of Youngstown State University.
The conference is presented by Junior Achievement of Mahoning Valley Inc., YSU’s Williamson College of Business Administration, and the Associated School Employees Credit Union. Participants will receive training and hands-on experience in three critical areas of financial literacy – managing credit, investing in the future, and building a personal budget.
The keynote speaker will be Chris Jaskiewicz, president and chief operating officer of VEC Inc.
During the life skills session, each student will be given a salary and will visit different community booths to determine monthly expenses such as food, housing, transportation, clothing, education and more.
“It’s very important to give young adults the opportunity to learn good money management skills,” said Michele Merkel, president of Junior Achievement of Mahoning Valley Inc. “We challenge high school students to think about how they can become financially prepared to rent an apartment, buy a car, attend post-secondary education, or whatever their goals may be.”
The event is being held in conjunction with Financial Literacy Month in April.
Junior Achievement of Mahoning Valley Inc. hopes to present financial literacy, entrepreneurship and work readiness programs to more than 10,000 students in Mahoning, Trumbull, Ashtabula and Columbiana counties. For more information about Junior Achievement, http://warren-youngstown.ja.org.