Communications Studies major Roslyn Mizgorski started Temple’s first financial awareness organization for students in the fall of 2016. It is the local iteration of the national organization, Generation Financial Knowledge Development (GenFKD), initially created by college students in 2013.

“Our generation is not getting the proper financial literacy education that we need,” Mizgorski said. “People don’t realize that finance is going to be a huge aspect of their life, no matter what their major is.”

GenFKD consists of three or four workshops per semester, featuring guest lectures from finance professors, employees of the bursar’s office and local professionals. In one of its first workshops,“How to Save for the Future,” guest speakers from the Philadelphia Credit Union discussed when to start saving money and how to manage a budget. Another workshop, “Living with Student Debt,” featured Travis Hornsby, student loan consultant and founder of the business Student Loan Planner, who spoke about saving money and exploring repayment options. 

“Our goal is for students to become more aware,” Mizgorski said. “To teach them how to save money, how to pay off loans, and create a better financial future for everyone.”

GenFKD also engages in political advocacy to make students aware of how financial policies may affect them. They hosted a political debate launch party as their first event in October of last year.

“We talked about what the candidates were saying and how it would affect us financially,” Mizgorski said.

Ultimately, Mizgorski would like to see some collaboration between Klein College and Fox School of Business.

“Fox gives us the finances and [Klein] gives us the ability to share it and advocate for it,” Mizgorski said. “It’s easy to forget that life continues after college is over … Our generation needs to learn how to prepare for the future.”

The next GenFKD meeting will take place during the first week of September.