First Florida CU Donates $250,000 to Bolster Financial Skills at Local College

Florida State College at Jacksonville plans to launch a business speaker series and bolster its Financial Skills Academy with a $250,000 donation from First Florida Credit Union.

The credit union committed the money as a way of supporting initiatives that will help local students and community members become future business leaders.

“We are extremely fortunate to be partnering with First Florida to help connect the FSCJ community with local business leaders and stakeholders to expand educational and professional development opportunities,” said FSCJ President Cynthia Bioteau. “The support from First Florida allows more focus to be placed on educating and preparing our current and future generations to be successful.”

According to First Florida Credit Union, prominent business professionals from the community plan to speak on a wide range of topics, including taxes, health care, and investing, during the upcoming Business Speaker Series. All sessions will be open to FSCJ students, high school students, military personnel and other groups as a way for the college to increase community-wide education.

The month series, set to run from fall 2017 to spring 2022, will give interested individuals the opportunity to network with businesses, while allowing potential employers to connect with the growing, upcoming workforce.

“At First Florida, we are committed to enriching people every day — and that’s exactly what this grant aims to accomplish,” said Brent Lister, CEO of First Florida. “We are thrilled to work with FSCJ to educate local students and community members alike as they become the business leaders of tomorrow.”

The donation also helps FSCJ expand marketing of its Financial Skills Academy, which is currently offered for free to more than 50,000 students and faculty. The academy provides four certification courses, taught both in the classroom and online, to help students learn financial knowledge.

FSCJ created the skills course four years ago for its students — to help them become more skilled in earning, spending and investing money. But, that program was limited to only college students and faculty.

“With this grant money, we want to expand some of the basics of the program into the broader community,” said Harvey Slentz, professor of business and employment law at FSCJ. “We are still working on the details of that.”

The college also wants to expand the course into bite-sized offerings on trendy or necessary topics — buying a car, getting a mortgage — that can be completed in an hour or so.

“The college is so happy to have this relationship with First Florida Credit Union. They have independently been working in this same area,” Slentz said. “These are people who have the mindset and heart who want to train people about money the same way we do. These are, like, our financial soulmates.”