by Maria Jayne and Kaycia Sailsman
La Unidad Latina Lambda Upsilon Lambda Fraternity Inc. held an event on Wednesday, Feb. 29 in Student Union 100 called “Money Talks,” where the topic of discussion was to change the way underrepresented students think about money and teaching the community how to earn it.
The keynote speaker of the night was Ash Cash, a business consultant, motivational speaker, financial expert and the author of “Mind Right, Money Right: 10 Laws of Financial Freedom.” He has years of banking experience from managing at Chase, CitiBank and the Carver National Bank.
While many other programs planned for that day were canceled due to weather, “Money Talks” went on as scheduled in spite of the snow.
“It was an eye opener,” second-year early education major Pamela Ng said. “Once we graduate, we don’t know how to invest and we really need to learn.”
The program kicked-off with a brief informational by fourth-year sociology major and Chapter President Jonathan Talmi discussing how motivation, education and drive are the key concepts for monetary success.
The main goal of the fraternity is to provide access to higher education and Talmi said people of color tend to struggle in obtaining it.
Talmi showed a slideshow featuring pictures of a mansion and a sports car. He said that although underrepresented students want the aforementioned luxury items, they may lack the necessary money to obtain them.
Talmi said 14.5 percent of people of color as a whole hold leadership positions on corporate boards among fortune 500 companies and the statistics are even smaller for Latinos (as only 3.28 and 2.9 percent hold these positions).
“It’s suprising that statistically people of color know how to invest less,” Ng said.
Following this, Cash took the floor and said it was important for the students to get in the right mind-set financially. He stressed this importance, as managing finances is not often taught in schools.
Cash said self-imposed barriers prevent people of color from reaching their full potential and make it easier for them to be used by others in the business world.
“People are going to use you, if you allow yourself to be used,” Cash said.
Ng said she is planning on investing mutual funds and chose to aim for personal success rather than the role society set for her.