UTEP Accounting Students Teach Women in Crisis About Finances
March 25, 2009
By Darren Meritz / El Paso Times
Posted: 03/14/2009 12:00:00 AM MDT
EL PASO -- Women in shelters who are down on their luck—often from broken, possibly abusive relationships they're trying to get out of—are learning about financial literacy from accounting students at the University of Texas at El Paso.
Erika Macias, from left, Anita Gomez, Lisa Anderson and Sibylle Wilson, all residents at the Villa Maria shelter, watch a DVD as part of the 13-week Financial Peace program. UTEP accounting students work with women at three area shelters, offering lessons on how the woman can handle their personal finances. (Vanessa Monsisvais / El Paso Times)
Students with the Beta Alpha Psi honorary accounting organization are providing monthly budget and tax advice to women at El Paso shelters.
About 80 women at Villa Maria, La Posada Home and the YWCA Transitional Living Center are participating in the program that includes monthly workshops designed to give them one-on-one help for their personal financial situations.
"We can see what exactly are their needs and what exactly they need help with," said Eric Cordero, a graduate business administration student at UTEP. "We try to help out as many of the women in the shelter as we can by doing their taxes for them."
UTEP accounting students are looking beyond that as well.
Cordero said women in shelters often have not had the opportunity to manage their own finances and might know little about the best approach to establishing a good financial future.
With the right experience, though, they could have promising financial futures with the right planning, he said.
Mary Stevens, a senior lecturer in accounting at UTEP and an adviser for Beta Alpha Psi, said the project began after she learned that women in shelters might be in particular need of help with their finances.
The large number of women in El Paso shelters has helped the program take off, Stevens said.
Financial literacy can provide women who are coming off tough times with skills they need to become independent and self-sufficient, Stevens said.
"Women given the proper tools are much more successful at returning to the community as an independent liver, than men," she said. "Our students give them the self-confidence that they can do it. It gets these women back in our community, and they're now successful on their own."
Stevens added that women who find themselves in abusive relationships often know little about finances, but can learn more. Abusive spouses can use strict control of finances as a tactic of abuse, she said.
The project stems from an effort last year in which students began helping shelter residents with tax returns during tax season. They found shelter residents needed additional help in managing their budgets, managing debt and developing solid financial literacy.
Rosa Villa, a graduate accounting student and a member of Beta Alpha Psi, said the lessons can be simple, but they provide the women with the right tools for planning for their financial futures.
"We have to teach them this is how much you'll want for food, housing, health, etc.," she said.
Darren Meritz may be reached at dmeritz@elpasotimes.com; 546-6127.