Event hosted by College of Education results in shockingly low attendance turnout
- Raini Singleton
- Sep 6, 2019
- 3 min read
ATHENS, GA -- An event hosted by the College of Education on Thursday, Sept. 13 had a shockingly low turnout, with only one student in attendance.
The event was hosted by the Variable Annuity Life Insurance Company (VALIC), and was intended to educate students within the College of Education on how to eliminate student debt after graduation. However, considering the number of people who registered and attended, it raises important questions. Why didn’t more people attend? And does this connect to a more widespread issue?
The event covered numerous topics in the financial universe, which delved into issues such as the current student loan crisis, repayment plans, student debt management tactics and more. It was taught in a presentation and lecture style, with time left for questions and discussions.
Matthew Wilbur, financial advisor of VALIC and the facilitator of the event, thoughtfully and critically analyzed the information, data and statistics presented to the audience. Despite the importance of the information he presented, there was again only one student there to take away from it. Part of the explanation for this may simply be that students do not understand how relevant it is.
“I am actually on a lobbying group that every high school student should take a personal finance class,” Wilbur said. “I think these are things that aren’t talked about enough, particularly personal finance.”
Numerous amounts of studies and research defend this imbalance. One study in particular examined Americans’ knowledge of financial terminology, with many struggling to define interest is, explain the concept of bankruptcy, or describe inflation. These concepts, as simple as they may be, draw a parallel to a much bigger problem. Many Americans are simply uneducated in the personal finance field, and could help explain why many are unable to properly prepare for their financial future. This includes planning for various fields of education they wish to pursue.
Wilbur addressed this problem directly in the event, bringing to light the issue of students applying to and attending colleges and universities that are incredibly expensive, outside the realm of their budget, or both.
“When you’re evaluating where to get your upper degrees from, states do not care whether your masters comes from UGA or Podunk University,” Wilbur said. “It solely comes down to how much you are willing to pay. No matter what your major is, where you go to school does not matter, as long as you are going somewhere that offers what you want to be accredited in.”
However, this still doesn’t draw back to the fact that only a singular student attended the event. If Americans, especially students, are faced with such a large financial issue, why aren’t events such as the VALIC event more common? And why aren’t more people showing up?
Taylor Carbin, a senior science education major from Buford, was the only attendee at the event and had other explanations, however.
“I think part of the reason [why so few people came] was simply because of the time of the event,” Carbin said. “Around 4 o’clock, people have things like work and classes and don’t have the time to come. I also just don’t think people really think about student loans and student debt, which is why no one else showed up.”
Wilbur attributed the low attendance to a more widespread problem that he hopes to combat through the use of education.
The VALIC company is considering expanding their events and seminars to other colleges within the University of Georgia. For more information, you can access their website here.
Matthew Wilbur, financial advisor with VALIC
Source List:
Matthew Wilbur: matthew.wilbur@valic.com
Taylor Carbin: taylor.carbin@gmail.com
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