Garrison Financial Institute Receives Educational Grant

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – As part of its mission to enhance student financial literacy, the Garrison Financial Institute at the University of Arkansas is offering three summer programs for pre-college students.

“Since receiving the $75,000 grant last spring from the Investor Protection Trust Foundation, we have been able to create these programs to help students become more informed about the world of finance,” said Wayne Lee, holder of the Garrison Chair and executive director of the Garrison Financial Institute. “In addition, these programs teach about managing personal finances and debt.”

The Garrison Financial Institute manages the Global Financial Markets Center, located in Willard J. Walker Hall. All are part of the Sam M. Walton College of Business. The institute was created in 2005 by a gift from the Garrison family and the Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation to advance financial education and research through practice. Its mission is to enhance student learning through experience, foster research that extends and perfects best practices, and contribute to the economic development of Arkansas and the welfare of its citizens.

 In June, the institute held its first program, called I-CAMP, on the University of Arkansas campus for sixth- and seventh-grade students from gifted and talented programs across Arkansas. Topics in the one-week program included compound interest, stocks and bonds, risk and returns, reaching financial goals, and saving for college.

The Summer Institute for Gifted and Talented Scholars, a three-week intensive program for Arkansas seventh- to ninth-grade students, begins Wednesday, July 7. These students will also learn about personal finance and the basics of investing. Experiential activities will include interpreting real-time financial news from such sources as Bloomberg, construction of simulated investment portfolios, and using the Internet to find financial information. The classes will culminate with presentations of students’ notebooks, financial plans and investment portfolios on Saturday, July 26.

The Garrison Financial Institute, in coordination with the University of Arkansas Office of Pre-College Programs, will participate in a month-long program, titled the College Residential Institute, for rising ninth-grade students from the Kaufman Scholars program in Kansas City and the KIPP Delta College Preparatory School in Helena, Ark. This program combines academic studies and recreational activities to help these students understand campus life at the university. It will be held July 8-31.

The KIPP Delta College Preparatory School was established in 2002 as an academically intensive charter school to meet the educational needs and aspirations of the Arkansas Delta community. The Kauffman Scholars Inc. is a comprehensive, multi-year program designed to significantly increase the number of low-income, urban students who become college graduates.

The Garrison Financial Institute will present 8 three-hour interactive, investor-education programs to these students in the Global Financial Markets Center. Topics covered will include interest, stocks and bonds, risk, financial goals, and saving for college. An Internet-based survey will be administered in the beginning and at the end to determine student progress.

Garrison Financial Institute summer programs are funded in part by a grant from the Investor Protection Trust. The trust is a nonprofit organization devoted to investor education. Since 1993 it has worked with the states to provide the independent, objective investor education needed by all Americans to make informed investment decisions. For more information, go to http://www.investorprotection.org.

“We are very grateful to the Investor Protection Trust for this grant that makes possible these wonderful educational programs,” said Lee. “We believe that financial literacy programs like these can make a long-term impact on the economy of Arkansas.”