Bank of America Funds Financial Literacy Handbook Led by Professor Reilly White

September 17, 2020 - Reilly White

White ReillyBank of America has awarded a $10,000 grant for Financial Literacy for Immigrants and Refugees, an ongoing project led by UNM Anderson School of Management Professor Reilly White, Ph.D., and student editors Kaleigh Hubbard, Anissia Savic, and Jay Shah. Leading a team of current and former UNM Anderson students, the group developed a 76-page Financial Literacy Handbook, Financial Literacy for Immigrants and Refugees: An Immigrant’s Guide to Personal Finance in America with the assistance of illustrators Morgan Watkins and graphic designer Joshua Reeves. Additional student contributors include Sarah McPhee, Rene Bustillo, Kanan Mammadli, Tristan Collar, Adam Depies, and Connor Lites.

financial-literacy-whiteThe grant will fund the final editing, printing, and translation of the literacy booklet into Spanish, Arabic, and Pashto for the UNM Refugee Well-Being Project. The booklet will be distributed free of charge and will soon be available online. Covering diverse topics including earnings, credit, and taxes, the book aims to provide a basis for financial literacy for our most vulnerable populations: recent immigrants and refugees. In addition, the book is being distributed at no cost to the UNM Center for Financial Capability, the CFA Society New Mexico, and the National Hispanic Cultural Center.

This project drew inspiration from the “Banking on the Future” curriculum developed by the U.S. Committee on Refugees and Immigrants, with plans to generalize and expand services to more groups as the program matures. New Mexico has nearly 200,000 immigrants, including roughly 36,000 who entered the country since 2010, indicating a substantial market for providing free financial literacy services.