Student, teachers learn together in LSUS seminar
06/27/05

Shreveport/Bossier area students who have completed the 7th & 8th grades have been sharing a learning environment with middle and high school teachers for two weeks at LSUS in a “Financial Independence for Life” seminar presented by the Louisiana Consortium of Insurance and Financial Services’ (LCIFS) Institute of Financial Literacy.

The curriculum of personal financial planning topics is empowering the 25 students to develop awareness and skills sufficient to live with financial security and independence. At the same time middle and high school teachers are learning how to pass the same information along to other students in their classrooms. Organizations providing financial support for the seminar include Kilpatrick Life Insurance Company and State Farm Insurance.

The seminar is being led by Dr. Harvey Rubin, LCIFS director, professor of finance and professor designate for the LSUS Kilpatrick Life Insurance Super Professorship, and Dr. Carlos Spaht II, director of the LSUS Institute of Financial Literacy, professor of mathematics and professor designate for the LSUS AEP SWEPCO LaPREP Professorship. The seminar curriculum includes creating a budget, savings and investments, stocks, bonds, mutual funds and annuities, credit cards, types of insurance, risk tolerance and the time value of money. Students also study the mathematics of finance: reading and creating graphs, calculating percentages, discounts, simple and compound interest and using graphing calculators to graph functions and do sophisticated financial computations.

The seminar began June 20 and the program’s concluding awards luncheon is scheduled for Friday (July 1), at 12 noon in the LSUS University Center Ballroom. For information, contact Jan Spaht, coordinator, at 318-798-4121 or jspaht@lsus.edu.