Common Cents

Pre-professionalAdvisingAcademicCommunity ServicePeer EducationUndergraduateAcademic/Pre-Professional

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Description

Common Cents is a national personal finance nonprofit seeking to mend the financial literacy knowledge gap seen across the U.S. Founded in 2019, we're headquartered at Penn with branches at NYU, Yale, and Hopkins.

Become a member today (no application): http://bit.ly/pcc-interest

Our Values:

Mission Statement: Common Cents seeks to mend the financial literacy gap seen across the U.S.

According to the Federal Reserve, in a basic financial literacy test comprising of three questions, only 33% of adults could answer all three questions. College students scored similarly.

This doesn't have to be that way.

Pillars: We strive to make personal finance...

Innovative: We find innovative ways to make learning about personal finance appealing for a wide audience, ranging from high schoolers to undergrads.
Interesting: We believe learning about personal finance should be fun, interactive, and engaging.
Inclusive: We seek to break the stigma and fear of personal finance. Regardless of age, major, career, or income level, personal finance is important for everyone.

Recruitment:

Applications have closed :(( but you can still join a community and make friends!! Email us: penncommoncents@gmail.com :)

Content: Research personal finance topics and create docs and presentations for events
Marketing: manage social media, run analytics for marketing strategy, and lead event promotion
Design: design graphics, lead magnets, advertising, and emails
Finance: track expenses, manage club budget, find partnerships, and hunt funding opportunities
Social: facilitate external and cross-school Common Cents Community groups and manage internal team-bonding activities

(Some) Past events:

Investing 101: Two investment managers from Goldman Sachs talked about the basics of investing

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MasterChef - Meal Prep Edition: Common Cents and Penn Appétit partnered to teach about meal prepping on a budget with a live cooking demo

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FAQ

Question: What kind of events do you hold, and how does each committee help with them? - Anonymous

Every committee comes together to help design and execute events. For our latest series at the Wave Learning Festival, the content committee led the presentations, marketing and design worked together to create and distribute promotional material, and every committee member was invited to help moderate and speak at the classes. It truly was a group effort!

- Hannah Xiao

Question: Why Common Cents? - Anonymous

Common Cents is Penn's first and only undergraduate personal finance club. We strive to teach our undergraduate peers as well as high schoolers personal finance topics in an engaging, informative way. Also new this year is our Common Cents Communities, where members can opt in to weekly socials with small group of other like minded peers!

- Hannah Xiao

Question: Do you teach PF to both high school and college students, or just one of those? - Anonymous

We teach personal finance to both undergraduates and high school students! We hope to mend the financial literacy gap by making these topics inclusive for anyone curious about learning more. Personal finance is applicable to all people no matter age, major, or career choice.

- John Ta

Question: Do you have to know about personal finance to join? - Anonymous

No! We encourage anyone and everyone to join as a general body member because personal finance knowledge is applicable to everyone, regardless of your background. We encourage all committee applicants to have some background in personal finance, but what we're looking for most is interest and passion. Committee members will definitely learn more as they become more involved in the club, so what's most important is that they will put in effort into their work at Common Cents, so they can learn and drive our mission. Even if you have very limited knowledge of personal finance, we encourage you to apply if you are willing to put in the time to learn more!

- John Ta

Question: How do you teach students personal finance? With classes or online webinars? - Anonymous

Common Cents aims to make personal finance interesting with activities like Kahoots, choose-your-own-adventure, jeopardy, and more (most of the time with a prize for winners!). We also forge innovation through interdisciplinary events like Masterchef when we had a live cooking demo and talked about meal prepping under a budget. Generally, we host a wide variety of events, including speaker events, informational classes, career panels, and online webinars. Because of the current virtual environment, all events for the fall 2020 semester will be virtual; however, we look forward to hosting more in-person events when we are back on campus.

- John Ta

Question: What is the recruitment process like step-by-step? - Anonymous

The recruitment process for committees begins with an online application form. Before interviews, we may hold coffee chats to get to know applicants better. Those with a strong application will be invited to a technical interview relevant to the committee they applied for, followed by a behavioral interview to determine if they are a good fit for the team.

- John Ta

Question: How has your model changed since COVID-19? - Anonymous

During the COVID-19 pandemic, all our events will be held virtually. However, the virtual environment allows us to hold intercollegiate events with our branches at NYU, Yale, and Hopkins.

- John Ta

Question: What is the difference between the different types of members? - Anonymous

Common Cents has three types of members: 1) Executive board members: lead all the committees and help facilitate the growth of the organization. Exec members are promoted internally from committees. 2) Committee members: responsible for various roles in running the Penn organization. They support the exec and complete initiatives within their teams. Committee members are encouraged to come up with their own new initiatives as well. 3) General body members: students who are interested in personal finance and may be interested in coming to events and bonding with the Common Cents community to learn more and meet new people. Executive board and committee positions require applications and interviews. However, we encourage anyone interested to join our general body to learn more about personal finance at our events. General body members can always apply to committee positions at a later time if they wish to get more involved.

- John Ta

Question: How often does the club meet for general body members? - Anonymous

We usually hold 1-2 events per month (excluding finals season). Make sure to follow our Facebook Page and join our listserv to be notified of upcoming events!

- Vivek Olumbe

Question: Do you have branches at other colleges? - Anonymous

Yes! We currently have branches at NYU, Yale, and JHU.

- Angelina Zhou

Question: What is the time commitment for committee members? - Anonymous

Committee members are expected to dedicate around 1-4 hours/week to the club. At a minimum, there is a club-wide meeting once a week that lasts between 30 minutes-1 hour. Additionally, most committees will also have weekly meetings that can range from 30 minutes-1 hour. Between meetings, committee members complete any assigned tasks and build out new initiatives.

- Angelina Zhou

Have a question about Common Cents?

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Members

John Ta

President & Founder

No Email

AZ

Angelina Zhou

Marketing Chair

No Email

HX

Hannah Xiao

Content Committee

No Email

Vivek Olumbe

Vice President

No Email

See more

300

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Basic Info

> 100 Members

Currently Accepting Members

Application Required for Some

Contact

facebook.com/penncommoncents

penncommoncents@gmail.com

commoncentsinitiative.org

linkedin.com/company/commoncentsinitiative

instagram.com/upenncommoncents

How To Get Involved

Join our listserv or fill out our interest form (http://bit.ly/pcc-interest)! We are an open club for anyone interested in joining as a member. To join our committees, we require an application.

Events

Click on an event to get more details.

October 08, 2020, 12:00 AM

Why Personal Finance Is Important