During the month of February, GateWay Community College organized its inaugural Financial Awareness, Teaching and Education (FATE), event. The event targeted GateWay students in order to provide them with the financial tools they need to succeed. FATE Week was the brainchild of Annette Torrey, accounting faculty. We sat down with Annette to discuss the event and what was learned from it. Below is a Q & A:
How was FATE week born?
It all started with wanting to turn GateWay into a certified VITA Site so we could offer free tax preparation services to the community. From then on other themes started coming up and were suggested by fellow faculty members as well as GateWay staff. In the end we had so many events in mind that we realized we were going to need a whole week to be able to truly provide these tools to our students in a way in which they absorb it.
The event took place a few weeks ago. How was the experience?
It was amazing! The carnival, exhibitors and financial seminars were all well received. The week exceeded my expectations. GateWay's New Day Band really set the mood for the carnival. It was AWESOME!
Do we know how many people attended the events in total?
We are estimating between 150 and 200 people attended the FATE Carnival. We had tremendous support on the part of faculty promoting the FATE Seminars; and had approximately 250 in total attend the nine seminars offered during the week.
What is the response you got from students at the Carnival?
They seemed to really enjoy it. CEI and student incubator was a campus "find" for many students. The Wheel of Fortune game sponsored by the Business/Information Technologies Department was a hit.
What were some of the most popular sessions? Why do you think this is?
Budgeting and Money Management, facilitated by Kay Fontana with Catholic Charities, was the most popular session, probably because it is a subject that could lend itself to so many different supplemental class assignments and activities.
Will this event become an annual event? What is the future of FATE?
I hope so. The FATE Carnival was originally created to be a kick-off to promote the free tax preparation services that are being offered on campus at the VITA Site, staffed by GateWay Accounting Interns.
Through the planning process, the carnival turned into Navigate Your FATE Week, a whole separate financial literacy initiative. It was a great example of the GateWay community working as one! Collaboration with members of GateWay's Marketing, Financial Aid and Student Life departments as well as sponsorship for the financial seminar series from Title V were very instructional, expanding one event into a campus-wide initiative. It was as an amazing cooperative work experience.
The goals are to continue the internship program through which we provide tax services on campus, and develop the financial literacy initiative into a program that would be valuable to the GateWay community.
What changes would you do to next year's event?
Next year we hope to expand the number of exhibitors at the Carnival and find a way to reach more of our evening students.