A group of 43 girls from Chandler High School attended Invest in Girls Day at the University of Oklahoma on Tuesday, said teacher Cynthia Snider.
The day-long event started with a seminar on personal finance in the morning that taught concepts such as earning an income, taxes, managing a bank account, credit cards and more. The afternoon included a tour of the business department at UCO. It was hosted by the Oklahoma Council on Economic Education and UCO’s College of Business.
“I think it’s so important in the way society is now that everybody has that responsibility to take care of all this,” Snider said. “And I think it’s important to expose them to college too. A lot of kids have never gotten to tour campuses.”
She added that the afternoon tour focused on promoting women in business as well as the department.
Freshman Kirra Wilkerson and Junior Brynn Lewis said they were excited to attend the event, saying they thought it was important for young girls.
“It’s to help us learn more and give us more opportunities to save money and manage it,” said Wilkerson.
Lewis added that young girls should learn about finance because they shouldn’t have to rely on someone else to help them. She said she focused on learning about saving since she usually spends all her money as soon as she gets a paycheck.
Both students said they hoped to be pediatric nurses after graduation and learning more about personal finance can help them to reach that goal.
“Because you really have to budget to go to college. With what we want to do, we have to learn how to save money and budget it if we want to go to school,” Wilkerson said.
“Especially if you have student loans. You’re going to have to pay those off, too,” Lewis added.