Black Caucus teaches Southern to SHOP

For its second time, Southern University will host the Student Homeownership Opportunity Program, a two-day seminar aimed at encouraging wealth building through sound financial practices and money management.
“SHOP for Wealth responds to rising statistics of student overspending and extreme debt leading to bankruptcy,” said Don I. Tharpe, president and chief executive officer of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation. “The credit card companies are getting to these kids before they can be taught the one two three’s of credit and money management.”
The SHOP for Wealth Seminar was held on Feb. 13 and 14 in the Cotillion Ballroom of the Smith-Brown Memorial Union and approximately 200 students attended. Verlin Campell, owner of CausEffect International, a marketing team hired by the Congressional Black Caucus and Simone Griffin of the Congressional Black Caucus, conducted the seminars.
Campell said the primary objective of SHOP for Wealth is to educate young people about the importance of managing money smartly, establishing good credit habits, recognizing the pitfalls of easy credit and building wealth.
“I didn’t know what to expect from the seminar, but the information was really useful,” said Melaine Haines, a freshman accounting major from New Orleans.
In 2003, the CBCF inaugurated a program to assist young people with becoming homeowners, while avoiding the pitfalls of poor credit habits and excessive debt. To achieve economic security, the program teaches that the smart choice is to begin understanding and managing personal finances while still in college.
“What we found as we talked to college students about homeownership was that many of them were already in major credit card and student loan debt and had no clue about establishing good credit, managing credit cards, saving, and planning for their futures,” Tharpe said.
Consumer report statistics show 45 percent of college students are in credit card debt and owe an average of $20,000. In addition, nearly seven percent of personal bankruptcies are filed by individuals 25 years of age and younger. Only 21 percent of students age 22 and below have never taken a personal finance course. Currently, 83 percent of college students have at least one credit card. More than half of those students are unaware of the interest rates they pay on their credit cards and most only pay the minimum monthly payment.
“I gained vital information from the seminar,” said Tameka Smith, a junior marketing major from New Roads. “They told me a lot of things that I didn’t know.”
As an added initiative, State Farm offered each student who attended the seminar a grant letter of $1,000 towards the closing costs on a new home. The grant letter will be good for three years and only if the recipient gets a mortgage loan from State Farm Bank.
While working with CausEffect International, CBCF introduced a campus organizational challenge where $500 would be given to the organization that brought the most students to the seminar. The members of the Beta Psi Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha, Inc. and the members of the Rho chapter of Phi Beta Sigma, Inc. worked together to encourage attendance as the only participating organizations. Both organizations will spilt the prize money.
For more information about the program log onto the CBCF Web site, www.cbcfinc.org.