6 minute read
Student Spotlight Colin Tran
Do you see a greater importance of financial literacy education in the future?
I absolutely do believe in the value of financial literacy and having the ability to manage your own finances. It’ s something so much more than people seem to realize; a lot of people think that business education is solely for the purposes of going into these different sectors of business but what people tend to miss is that no matter where you work, you ’ re working for a business and understanding how business works is important from that standpoint. From a personal standpoint when it comes to financial literacy there needs to be an understanding of when you get that paycheck you need to know what you ’ re going to do with it in order to manage your money in a way that’ s going to allow you to live the quality of life that you want to.
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How does NXT-GEN lessen the impact the lack of financial literacy education has on high school youth?
NXT-GEN bridges gaps in business and financial literacy education through a series of financially accessible experiential learning opportunities, encompassing workshops, case competitions, pitch competitions, and speaker series, collectively backed by local industry leaders. In doing so, NXT-GEN is arming students with the knowledge they need to manage both their personal finances and better understand the world of business, thus empowering them to succeed and lead in their respective careers. Overall, from NXT-GEN’ s perspective, we are hoping to offer barrier free education to people regardless of your background and really be able to offer empowerment to people to take whatever means they have wherever they come from in order to grow and find new ways to continue to grow.
Do you have any advice for entrepreneurial students?
The best kept secret of founding anything is that nobody knows what they ’ re doing. Nobody can plan out every single detail and remove that level of uncertainty at every stage in starting your own initiative. The advice to anyone whether you ’ re a student or not entering the field of entrepreneurship is to just get started, find something small that you understand and get started with that and you ’ll see things grow from there. I’ ve seen it with NXT-GEN when we grew from something that was originally supposed to be just a privately run group to run one competition a year into a full slate of speaker series and competitions as we continue to hope to run nationally in the next year or so. Things will generally find their way to work out so don ’t waste your time writing out a 20 page business plan hoping that every single thing happens to the letter, just get started, see what happens and be willing to go with the flow.
Written By: Leizl Ubaldo | Designed By: Harkeerat Brar
For this month’ s Club’ s Corner, we interviewed Travis Nowak, VP Public Relations for 5 Days for the Homeless to gain insight about the club and the chronic issue of homelessness that is increasingly impacting our society today.
What is 5 Days for the Homeless about?
5 Days for the Homeless is a student-run club that values social equity with a mission to shine a light on youth homelessness. Our goal is to make people aware of the challenges of homelessness, to fight against stereotypes, and help the youth to be aware of the resources available to them if they are going through a crisis. 100% of our donation revenue goes to our parent organization, Youth Empowerment and Support Services (YESS). They provide support services such as emergency shelter and counseling services.
I learned just how complicated and multifaceted an issue that youth homelessness is. It’ s so complicated and very cyclical. As an organization, we ’ re trying to prevent chronic homelessness so that if somebody does face housing insecurity, they can get back on their feet. A lot of people facing homelessness do so, not because there is something wrong with them, but because there are so many external factors that come into play including things like trauma and addiction and bad experiences that aren ’t anything inherent to them as a person.
I learned just how complicated and multifaceted an issue that youth homelessness is. It’ s so complicated and very cyclical. As an organization, we ’ re trying to prevent chronic homelessness so that if somebody does face housing insecurity, they can get back on their feet. A lot of people facing homelessness do so, not because there is something wrong with them, but because there are so many external factors that come into play including things like trauma and addiction and bad experiences that aren ’t anything inherent to them as a person. Another interesting thing I learned is that it costs taxpayers about $100,000 a year to treat somebody who is chronically homeless as an adult. However, YESS is able to treat youth homeless for about $7,000 a year. That’ s a massive difference. So, if you deal with the underlying problems facing the youth before the problem has had a chance to cement itself, there is a far better outcome economically, in terms of society, but also in terms of how that individual is able to be reintegrated.
How can students get involved?
We ’ re currently recruiting for volunteer ambassadors. To those interested, fill out a form through the link on our Instagram page or on our website. The role of volunteer ambassadors is to get some extra hands to help us lead discussions with people that are interested in asking us questions. My advice for someone who is looking to get involved is to seek us out on Instagram or our website. Send us a message and inquire to see if our club is something you ’d like to get involved in. Word-of-mouth is infinitely useful to us and if time is an issue but you believe in our cause, there is also an option to donate through our website.
To learn more about 5 Days for the Homeless, visit their website or their Instagram page:
www.5daysedmonton.org
@5d4h _edmonton
Miscellaneous
Cozy Recipefor What could be better than hot soup on a cold winter day? A budget-friendly hot soup! This lentil soup is a great source of protein, easy to make and won ’t break the bank. Winter
Ingredients:
1 white onion, finely sliced 2 tsp olive oil 3 garlic cloves, finely grated 2 carrots, scrubbed and diced 85g red lentils 1 vegetable (or chicken) stock cube, crumbled Salt and pepper (to taste)
Steps: 1.Boil 1 liter of water to cook the lentils in. 2.Meanwhile, heat oil in a medium pan, add sliced onions and fry for 2 minutes. 3.Add in carrots and let them cook . 4.Add in your garlic let it perfume the ー be careful not mixture. Let the to burn mixture it! ー and cook for a while and season as you desire. 5.Once the water has boiled, add in lentils and vegetable stock cube. 6.Cook over medium heat for 15 minutes, until lentils are tender 7.Add in fried vegetables and season to taste.
Written by: Vaneeza Asif
Designed By: Janet Dhanoa
