Success Skills Seminar
According to the AfterCollege website, 56 percent of students are worried about finding a job after graduation. Students cited various reasons for this lack of confidence such as low salary and benefit expectations. To address this problem, COSIFE created a project to educate college and high school students about saving for the future, purchasing various kinds of insurance, and choosing a good benefits package.
This year, COSIFE hosted our first annual success skills seminar. Mac McGregor of Edward Jones Investments explained the importance of investing early. He focused on strategies that can be used to meet your investing objective. In his discussion he explained the pros and cons of Roth and traditional IRAs as well as the advantages of high-risk versus low-risk investments.
In addition to learning about the importance of investing, Derek Bell of State Farm Insurance spoke to the attendees about the different types of insurance needed for success in the future. While most students are familiar with insurance, Mr. Bell highlighted the value of purchasing life, auto, renters and gap insurance. Additionally, he mentioned the importance of building outstanding credit by applying for a bank loan as soon as possible.
After gaining knowledge of retirement plans and insurance, the students learned how to evaluate an employer’s benefit package. Gary Lambert, the Director of Human Resources at Big Cedar Lodge in Branson, explained how to evaluate benefit packages.
Over 150 students attended our seminar (video comment). At the end of each session, we distributed surveys to evaluate learning percentage gain. Overall, students indicated an 84% satisfaction rate.
