In business, differentiation often determines success--how much a business stands out from its competitors can mean the difference between sales and no sales.
In impact-driven nonprofit work and social entrepreneurship--Moneythink's type of work--differentiation is just as important...just in a different kind of way. TIME magazine recently said that "a 2008 survey of college students...found that students who'd had a personal finance or money-management course in high school scored no better than those who hadn't." This is NOT to say that personal finance courses are inevitably and eternally doomed to fail their missions. Rather, this means that most financial literacy courses have failed to be effective.
Notably, the article also mentions Ariel Community Academy, a school in South Chicago (working in much of the same territory as Moneythink's UChicago chapter) that has successfully integrated financial literacy curricula in a way that connects on the student's level.
Moneythink goes one step further in relating to students by maximizing the advantage of our youth. We send college students that are only 2-3 years older than most of our high school students to teach. But we don't just teach; we connect on a peer-to-peer level, building friendships that go beyond the classroom. It is our age that we feel differentiates us in the field of financial literacy education...and we hope to drive change by making the most of our youth.
