Western Kentucky University holds personal finance camp for high school students

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – Western Kentucky University held a personal finance camp, a one-week intensive for high school students to learn skills, gain exposure to the financial world, and learn about the wide variety of career opportunities.

Jake Darabos, the chief financial and administration officer, says, “As a credit union, we see adults and young people who make financial mistakes. And we’ve always found that it is easier to teach early and prevent mistakes than to try to dig out after mistakes are made.”

The camp not only helps with the financial foundation, but it can also shape the students’ futures.

Claudia Cox, a student at Taylor County School, shares, “It’s helped me figure out what kind of career I want to do in the future. Because at first I had no idea what I wanted to do. I just know that I liked money, but going here for the first time, it helped me sort it out. I wanted to do something in accounting, and then coming here the second time, and help me reinforce my future in corporate finance and accounting.”

Julian Drew, a student at Bowling Green High School, tells us, “A lot of the people that have been teaching, as we have said, like about 90% of adults in the world don’t know what we’re learning. But today, you can see that this is really good to be able to learn this stuff now. Know what you’re going to college for and know what those opportunities can do for you once you’re out of college and even while you’re in college.”

Empowering the students to make informed choices, it becomes a tool that can change lives.

Jake also says, “Personally, it gives me a great feeling. From the credit union perspective, our approach is definitely that if we can change one person’s life, if we can prevent one individual from getting a high-rate auto loan just because they know what they deserve and they know what they earn, we think it’s all worth it.”