Club Chat – Life After College Club

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Graduation is soon upon us, so what better time to talk about a campus organization that’s all about what to do once you’ve left school? I spoke with Joshua Rudin (‘18) who is the president of the Life After College Club – a club dedicated to promoting financial literacy and life skills among the student body.

Why did you start this club?
Because I know it’s a very important series of topics to discuss financial planning aspects. Such as budgeting, credit cards, saving for meals. I know that a lot of my friends are looking for that money on the weekend that they could spend on pizza, or whatever they would want to spend it on. So I wanted to give them tips on ways they could do that. A lot of people say “Oh, I don’t have enough money to do this” but if you save enough, you’ll be able to do what your friends are planning do, in addition to other things. These are life lessons that I really think students should learn before they get into the real world.

What is your clubs mission?
We want to educate college students about knowledge that they might not know. We have the answers to questions, thing like, how do I save enough to order pizza twice a week, or how do I take out a loans for a car, or to move off campus. That’s the mission, to educate students about these kinds of things, without having to take a course of personal financial planning.

What kinds of events have you had?
We invited a local credit union to campus, and they gave a brief overview about credit cards, debit cards, some rules about them, when you should use them, what a FICO score is… and they gave us a brief quiz to see what we knew already, and filled in the gaps of our knowledge of what we didn’t know. It was a great event, and I hope in the next few years they’ll be able to return to campus and present again.
We also send out newsletters and important topics in the news: things like information from financial journals or articles from blogs that other college students write. We also had a Career Education Office event, where the CEO came to our club and edited our resumes and cover letters for firms we were applying to. We really want to prepare people for life after college, instead of being stuck wondering “what do I do now?”

What challenges have you faced?
The biggest challenge has been marketing. I actually ran this club two falls ago as the Business and Economics club. But I didn’t realize that people associate it as some kind of investment club. I changed the name to emphasize that it’s not just investments or not just finance, it’s about building those life skills.

Do you think Goucher is a financially literate campus?
I think they can be, but I don’t think they necessarily are. A lot of people are complaining about the same things: that they don’t have enough money to do the things they want. I think they probably aren’t taking a step back and thinking: well, what if I budgeted this out, or what if I got a part-time job. Taking a step back and realizing how much you can do is the key.

Any goals for the future?
We want to have more events, and have the CEO come more often. Perhaps if the marketing was better to reach our target audience: mainly seniors and juniors, but I also want to reach younger students as well. I think they could really utilize it the most and carry it on through their junior and senior year. Another big goal I had was to set an association with a Towson university club or another similar organization.

Why should someone join your club?
I think there aren’t a lot of clubs on campus that offer “free knowledge” about things that help you later on. Our club teaches skills you’ll need to utilize soon after graduation. It’s important stuff you need to know.

And that’s that for this installment of club chat! Interested in having your organization featured in the next issue of the Q? Email me at firut001@mail.goucher.edu for your chance to be in the next edition!

Featured Image Credit: Graetnew.com

Fiona Rutgers is a junior Economics major and professional writing minor. She is a member of Goucher beekeeping, Nerdfighters, salsa club, and more! When not running between classes and clubs, she enjoys baking.

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