NGPF Podcast

It was fun checking in with Justin Draeger, who leads the largest association supporting college financial aid officers. Justin last appeared on the podcast about three years which meant we had a lot of catching up to do. Listen to Justin describe what has changed as well as what hasn't in that interval. He discusses innovation in higher ed, the push for more transparency in award letters and the current regulatory environment in the highly regulated financial aid field. Enjoy!

From PC Magazine to CNET to Yahoo to Guitar Hero to Chegg, Dan Rosensweig has had a fascinating front-row seat in seeing (and sometimes driving) the paradigm shifts in tech as it has evolved from the PC to the Internet to the cloud. In this wide-ranging and fast-paced conversation, Dan shares his thinking behind leaving Guitar Hero to join a then simple textbook rental company (Saying ‘hey I am the CEO of guitar hero’ then going to say ‘i rent textbooks’... you can imagine how that went in the ‘coolness’ category). He also describes how he has completely transformed and expanded Chegg's digital offerings to, in his words, "realign the education system" to meet the needs of the students they serve. Enjoy!  

Can you imagine a better panel to discuss financial education in schools than NGPF’s Co-Founder Jessica Endlich, Jump$tart's President and CEO Laura Levine, , and Champlain College’s Director of Financial Literacy John Pelletier? They recently appeared on the NPR 1A podcast where the topics ranged from how personal finance should be taught in schools to the investment in professional development required to run effective programs to how this coursework can be used to address equity issues. Enjoy! 

States legislators and education leaders make decisions to emphasize financial education but then what? Anyone experienced in education or business, for that matter, knows that success requires keen attention to detail when it comes to implementation. Debbie Pierce from Economic Literacy Colorado and Alyssa Wooten from the Colorado Dept. of Education have teamed up to both increase access and improve the personal finance instruction taught in Colorado schools. Listen as they share their plans, the lessons they have learned along the way and what makes for a successful implementation plan. Enjoy! 

Renee Wasinger can be described as many things, most notably as an enterprising, enthusiastic, and energetic educator! If you visited her classroom in Olathe, Kansas, you no doubt would see her TBWA philosophy in action: Teaching By Walking Around.  Whether it's checking in with her students on their projects, creating a help center to build interest at her high school or pushing for universal access to personal finance, Renee's clearly demonstrates her passion for helping students everyday. As a store operations leader at Wal-Mart, she gained valuable insights about the skills her students will need to succeed in the "real world" and she makes sure they leave her classroom with those skills. Enjoy!

Once an educator, always an educator. Jim Wasserman took a page from his own book—literally!—and now he’s happily living his “third life” la buena vida with his wife (and investment guru) Jiab in Seville, Spain. This renaissance man found a way to jazz up his economics class and boy has he amassed quite the collection of student stories over the years. Hear Jim dive into how his classroom experience shaped his life and be inspired to go back to your classroom with some fresh new ideas. Enjoy!

Who knew that Kelly Lannan, collegiate musician and ice hockey captain extraordinaire, would find her calling in financial services? Kelly shares that a career in finance wasn't on her mind as she collected her diploma on graduation day. Yet, today as the Director of Young Investors at Fidelity, Kelly engages with college students and inspires them to plan for their futures today. Find out the myths that her team busted in their Millennial Money Study (there are several!). Listen carefully and you may learn a new acronym too. What is JOMO and how can it shift your money mindset? Enjoy!

Nick Murja’s odyssey to achieving a debt-free life started when a sudden epiphany led him to change the way he viewed money. He doubled down and saved, invested wisely, and even started his own handful of side hustles in order to reach his goal in record time. Along the way, he publicly announced his progress towards his goal which engaged his students even more! Now this Palo Duro High School teacher is on another mission: teaching his students the financial lessons he wished he knew when he was their age. Enjoy!

From a young, impressionable age, Jerry Nemorin “[watched] family members’ parents play whack-a-mole with bills and debt.” He wanted to change the fate of not only his family but consumers in the U.S. who had experienced the same financial ordeal. Thus, LendStreet was born in the depths of the 2008 Recession, and it has been helping consumers manage their debts in a sustainable way while also helping them rebuild their credit scores. Hear more about the company’s origins as well as how it differs from the “other guys.” Enjoy!