White House Campus Champion Teaches Young Americans Financial Literacy, Entrepreneurship
April 13, 2012
A senior at the University of Chicago, Gonder has already worked with a dozen startups, spoken at the United Nations, the New York Stock Exchange, and the U.S. Senate Building, and helped lead multiple student movements.
But his most recent initiative is the award-winning Moneythink, for which Gonder was recently recognized as one of five White House Campus Champions of Change during a ceremony with President Obama. The program teaches young Americans about financial literacy through a unique mentorship arrangement.
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Celebrating The #WHchamps: Get To Know The Winners & How To Get Involved
March 16, 2012
Moneythink sets out to empower local urban high school students to build a better future through peer-mentoring in financial literacy and entrepreneurship education. In under three years, Moneythink has scaled to 17 urban campus communities nationwide, mentoring over 1,700 urban high school students by training over 300 college students to deliver 10-week courses in financial literacy and entrepreneurship education.
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Abandoning Mediocrity and Seizing Opportunity
March 15, 2012
I’m honored to have Moneythink recognized as one of the five Champions of Change in the White House Campus Challenge. It’s surreal: three years ago, when Moneythink was just an idea, we dreamed of taking our passion—financial education through peer mentorship—to a national stage. We didn’t realize just how much more relevant our mission would become in those short three years.
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University of Chicago student to be honored at the White House
March 13, 2012
On Thursday, March 15th, the White House will honor Ted Gonder from the University of Chicago as one of five young leaders being recognized as Champions of Change for outstanding leadership on their campus.
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GOOD Maker Winner: Mentorship Program Helps High School Students Keep Money in the Bank
March 2, 2012
It is disheartening, but perhaps unsurprising, that few American public schools in the are able to spare the funds to offer courses in financial literacy. Only 13 states require high school students to take a class in personal finance management before graduation, which does little to curb the staggering bankruptcy statistics among young adults. But Moneythink, winner of the Get Financially Fit Challenge on GOOD Maker, is looking to change that.
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Moneythink on the verge of winning national competition
March 2, 2012
The University of Mississippi Moneythink chapter is votes away from becoming one of the winners of the Campus Champion of Change Challenge, a contest created by the White House.
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Campus Champions Of Change: President Obama, MtvU Nominate Top 15 Students
March 2, 2012
When it comes to rewarding those who are combatting the nation’s most pressing issues, President Barack Obama is looking to the freshest of faces — college students.
After partnering with mtvU, a 24-hour college network for students, the White House announced the Campus Champions of Change contest last fall, which called for applications from students who are tackling some major problems, including hunger, empowering low-income kids and homelessness.
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Moneythink
October 18, 2011
Moneythink teaches high school students financial literacy — how to manage money, a bank account and become entrepreneurs. It’s not been developed by a bank or money fund, but by five University of Chicago students as a non-profit with peer mentors who teach a ten-week curriculum. Five other colleges have started the program.
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New CI group preaches money smarts
October 10, 2011
Many low-income students know all too well that money talks, but a new Community Impact program aims to teach students that money thinks too.
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Meet the New Generation of Entrepreneurs
October 10, 2011
Starting a business is a challenge for anyone. But starting one when you’re a 19-year-old college student? That’s even harder. Yet that’s exactly what Ted Gonder did. Gonder, now 21 and a senior majoring in geography at the University of Chicago, is the co-founder and executive director of Moneythink, a nonprofit that trains college students to teach financial literacy and entrepreneurship in local urban high schools.
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‘There’s a Lot of Pits to Fall Into, and It’s Easy to Overspend Your Money’
September 25, 2011
The University of Chicago is known for its economics faculty, which promotes the notion of a free-market economy and has been criticized as encouraging decisions that led to the current recession. Not far from the campus, the effects of the depressed economy are visible on Chicago’s South Side, with empty lots, foreclosed buildings, and high-interest lenders nearby.
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Chicago Nonprofit Moneythink Ignites Support for Financial Literacy, Entrepreneurship Education
May 3, 2011
On May 12, Chicago-based nonprofit Moneythink is hosting an event to gain support for its mission to train talented, dedicated college students to teach high school students in underserved neighborhoods the fundamentals of entrepreneurship and financial literacy.
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Students teach finance to local high school students
April 6, 2011
Learning how to manage personal finances might not be on the minds of most high school students, but a group of USC students has started a volunteer organization on campus to teach local high schoolers how to do just that.
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Capital Ideas: Moneythink ventures to bring financial literacy to South Side students
April 14, 2010
At 8:20am on a beautiful spring morning, sunlight is streaming through the chipped windows of a third floor classroom of Woodlawn Charter High School at 64th Street and Woodlawn Avenue, onto the sleepy faces of a group of high school seniors, their heads resting on their hands. On the walls of the classroom are two posters of Muhammad Ali (“I am the greatest”) and one of Che Guevara (“The people liberate themselves”). The two University of Chicago freshmen standing in the circle of tables, themselves barely out of senior year, are trying to bring the students a different kind of inspiration.
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College students tackle financial illiteracy
April 6, 2010
In a dreary classroom overlooking a blighted block on the South Side, I watched three University of Chicago students teach seniors at Hales Franciscan High School the finer points of money management. I came expecting tips on budgeting and instead found that elusive place called “common ground.
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