Learning Initiative and Financial Training is a program that involves students in the Culverhouse School of Accountancy volunteering at various sites across Tuscaloosa. They teach high school students and community members about financial literacy, Microsoft Word, Excel and other software programs.
Faculty sponsor Lisa McKinney said the program is a way for business students to invest their skills back in the community.
“I cannot cook, do medical things or build houses, so I always felt useless,” McKinney said. “But I knew the one thing I could do is teach business subjects to people in a common sense way so it was not over their head.”
With so many students coming from outside of Tuscaloosa, the program allows students to see the parts of town more hidden from view. McKinney herself has grown from the experience, she said.
“I never went to West End or Holt until last semester, even though I had gone to school, worked and lived in Tuscaloosa on and off for 23 years,” she said. “We’re trying to build a connection where the community benefits from the success of the University.”
David Hose, a graduate student studying accounting, helped McKinney organize the program in the fall.
Participants are put in groups to work through the material, and student volunteers work with the same class from week to week, so they are able to get to know the participants over the course of the semester, Hose said.
“It’s just kind of better for them if they can have somebody they recognize each week and they can build that relationship with,” he said.
McKinney said the student volunteers are improving their own skills by teaching the quickest and easiest ways to use the software. Some of the volunteers are members of Beta Alpha Psi, an honors organization for finance students, and are participating in order to serve the community. Hose said this explanation process is just as much a part of the program as sharing the information with participants.
“We learn so much stuff in school and I can talk to you about deferred tax assets and all that cool stuff that looks great in a textbook, but a lot of this stuff, these social skills, these interacting skills, you can’t get unless you go out and do it,” Hose said.
Since last fall, the program has expanded to include just under 280 student volunteers and two graduate assistants. Volunteers teach courses at Holt High School, the McDonald Hughes Community Center, the Edge Entrepreneurial Research Center, the Weaver Bolden Library and the Veterans Affairs Medical Center. The program has 25 computers that are transported from site to site throughout the day.
Although the program is less than a year old, McKinney said she has received positive feedback. Students told her they feel like valuable members of the community and enjoy engaging in the world around them. Participants said they appreciate the program as well.
“People have told me that the class gives them confidence more than anything else,” McKinney said. “Many feel locked out of jobs because of their lack of computer skills. This is opening doors for them.”
The content of the courses is tailored to each individual’s prior knowledge, but isn’t focused on advanced skills, Hose said.
When the course and a final assessment are completed, participants receive a certificate. Hose said that recognition means a lot to the participants.
McKinney and Hose both said all of the student volunteers have been a major factor in the success of the program.
“All of our student volunteers have been incredible,” Hose said. “I’m so impressed with how these people can get in there and act like they’ve known these people for all their lives and do a great job of teaching as well.”
