May 2021 - Newsletter

Improving Credit Michigan Jump$tart Coalition wants to take time this month to thank our community for your participation in Financial Literacy Month. We shared a lot of wonderful resources and events throughout the month. If you missed anything, you can find more on our Facebook and Twitter pages, including our scholarship opportunity! During the month of May, we wanted to continue the money conversation focused around managing credit by sharing resources that can help you in and out of the classroom. A lot of the conversation is focused on the credit score to maximize your score from the three reporting agencies (Equifax, Transunion, & Experian). You can check your credit score for free on a weekly-basis since the start of the pandemic and will run until April 20, 2022. You can find more information here to help you stay on top of your credit. Thank you for being part of our community. We know that credit can be tricky so please reach out to us on social media. We are happy to answer questions that you may have that could impact your credit report. We hope all of you have a wonderful month ahead. 

Student Scholarship Opportunity The Michigan Jump$tart Coalition's 2021 student scholarship application portal is OPEN! You have until June 1st to complete your submission. We will announce the winner during the month of June and will be awarding two $500 scholarships. If you are looking for help putting together your application or doing improving your scholarship search, you can learn more here.

Professional Development Opportunities We are building a Calendar of professional development opportunities and other events. Please let us know if you have information to add. Below you will find several opportunities throughout the month of May. During April, which was Financial Literacy Month, many organizations put together a lot of wonderful events and opportunities to learn about financial education. Many of those events were done virtually and records. During the month of April was Money Smart Week. You can find the recordings of each day here. Each day had a different theme around saving, managing student loans, identity theft, and dealing with finances during the pandemic. Below you will find a list of different virtual professional development opportunities offered by different organizations in May as well as recorded sessions from Financial Literacy Month.

NGPF Jump$tart Financial Foundations for Educators

MI DIFS U-M Credit Union

MI MCEE MI Financial Wellness

Credit Resources Having debt carries a lot of different emotions. Creating a plan to manage your debt level while trying to maximize your credit score has challenges. Knowing how much you owe and having a repayment plan can feel very overwhelming. This can make the conversation around credit more difficult to share with your students. We have found some resources that can help start those conversations with different guides, interactive games, worksheets, articles, and discussion prompts. Experian. A teacher lesson plan called the ABC's of Credit Reporting designed to help students learn how credit reporting works, what's in a credit report, and how financial decisions can impact a person's record for years to come. Also included is a vocabulary worksheet, pre/post assessment, answer keys, and a Credit Jeopardy game. Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The FTC has created a Credit & Your Consumer Rights online brochure that gives an explanation of consumer rights under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. It provides for solving credit problems. Fool Proof Foundation. This is an article that talks about what a credit score is and how it is calculated. It also looks at how the score can impact you and how lenders use that information. Next Gen Personal Finance (NGPF). NGPF Arcade has created interactive games focused around credit. They have games focused on Managing Credit and Types of Credit.

How You can enter to win $100 gift card! Jump$tart Clearinghouse houses hundreds of resources to assist teachers, students, and caregivers in providing additional learning material for our nation's students. Your feedback is important. Reviewing resources in the Clearinghouse allows authentic user feedback in helping the community find the resources that are relevant to their specific need. Jump$tart Clearinghouse is currently holding a quarterly raffle to win a $100 gift card for your reviews. To enter, please visit here, create a user profile, and write a review of the resources. This enters you into the raffle for a chance to win the $100 gift card!.

We Want to Hear From YOU Michigan Jump$tart Board Members are reaching out to all our partners to learn more about your involvement and what is most important to you! So far we are hearing a lot of great feedback about collaboration and inspiring young people to be financially successful adults. We want to hear from you! Email info.mijumpstart@gmail.com to set up a call today! Do you have a topic, article, or professional development opportunity that might be of interest for our partners? Please share with us for consideration in a future newsletter! Email us at info.mijumpstart@gmail.com.

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