Financial literacy is the set of skills that help people navigate personal financial decisions, such as having emergency savings, saving for retirement, and understanding the costs associated with taking on debt. Previous studies find that financial literacy has an effect on wealth. In his senior year, CSU Dominguez Hills student Nathan Castro became interested in financial literacy. Castro started his college experience with classmates who were taking on large amounts of student debt and not graduating. He wanted to find ways of helping people understand how to make better financial decisions and manage their personal finances. Under the mentorship of Dr. Jennifer Brodmann, assistant professor in CSUDH’s Department of Accounting, Finance and Economics, Castro studied the impact of financial literacy programs to determine the structure needed to improve financial literacy rates in adolescents and adults through an after-school program that engages both parents and their children.
Their study examined the types of financial literacy programs offered in the United States, their program outcomes and how to increase efficacy. Castro concluded that certain practices may help increase the efficacy of the program, which include adhering to national financial literacy standards from the Council for Economic Education, having students take assessment tests before and after the program, providing financial coaching with specific student goals and periodically evaluating the progress toward those goals, having a targeted list of workshops tailored to the student’s needs and offering a range of course instruction (e.g., in-class, small-group and alternative media instruction) according to the student’s learning preference.
Castro presented the study at the South Bay Economic Forecast in 2018, as well as at CSUDH Student Research Day and the Academy of Economics and Finance Conference in 2019. In conducting this study, he learned research composition and methods, applied critical thinking skills and gained valuable experience in presenting research.
Castro graduated with his Bachelor of Arts degree in communications with a concentration in advertising and public relations in 2019, and he is applying for graduate programs in business and education.