Higher One, a leading provider of financial services and data analytics to more than 1,900 colleges and universities across the U.S., has announced the winners of its annual Money on My Mind video contest. To enter, students were asked to submit a two-minute video that addressed questions about money management-related challenges, strategies and recommendations to fellow students—in total, 10 college students were awarded a total of $4,200 for their video entries this year.
“Our Money on My Mind contest encourages students to share personal experiences and advice in a peer-to-peer format, which is a very helpful and engaging way to share financial knowledge,” said Mary Johnson, Financial Literacy and Student Aid Policy Director at Higher One. “This year we received nearly 450 contest entries—and the winning submissions conveyed in humorous and engaging ways the importance of college students becoming financially literate.”
The videos chosen as winners in this year’s competition highlighted the budgeting struggles one faces as a college student and the key role having a bank account plays in managing money; recommended “tricks” for students entering college; and how to stay on top of finances, including budgeting to know how much money you have at any given time, tracking recurring and upcoming expenses and refraining from spending more than needed.
In addition to the top three prizewinners listed below, seven runners-up also received $100 each for their winning entries, which can be viewed on Higher One’s One For Your Money blog.
Grand prize and $2,000: Nick
Levy, Florida State University
First
prize and $1,000: Daniel
Aquino, San Jacinto College Central
Second
prize and $500: Thien
Nguyen, Spokane Falls Community College
All of the top prizewinners noted the importance of students becoming financially literate, especially in making the transition from high school to college.
“It's important for college students to learn about financial literacy because they are going to have to start dealing with it all soon, if not already,” said Levy. “It's easy to mismanage finances, but incredibly expensive if you do—hopefully everyone can learn [money management skills] in college.”
“As college students, we're expected to take the time we have in school to learn skills that will ensure our success for the rest of our lives,” said Aquino. “It's important to know how to manage money and be financially literate, because those skills are needed in order to survive in and change the world we live in nowadays.”
Further, the questions posed to students as part of the contest resonated with entrants who highlighted their own challenges.
“The Money On My Mind contest was an amazing opportunity—what inspired my video was how the questions [relate to] everyday predicaments,” said Nguyen. “It is important for college students to have money management skills so they have stability in their future—[financial literacy] is important because many incoming college students aren’t fully aware of how costly items and expenses in their budget can be.”
About Higher One
Higher One (NYSE:ONE) partners with colleges and universities to lower their administrative costs and to improve graduation rates. We provide a broad array of payment, refund disbursement and data analytics and management tools to institutions that help them save money and enhance institutional effectiveness. And for students, we offer financial literacy programs and convenient, flexible and affordable transaction options to help them manage their finances. Higher One’s products and services support more than 1,900 schools and approximately 13 million enrolled students. More information about Higher One can be found at www.higherone.com.
