In the dynamic landscape of entrepreneurship, education is often the catalyst for turning ideas and visions into reality. Such was the case for business owner Kussy Mackenzie.
Second-year student Zora Williams is using her voice to bring more mental health and nutrition programming to San Diego Mesa College. Williams was elected president of the college’s Associated Students (AS) for the 2024-2025 academic year and serves as the college’s student representative on the San Diego Community College District Board of Trustees.
Sometimes, you hear a story that makes you want to know more. Kevin Gonzalez has such a story. The last time this story was updated, San Diego Mesa College student Kevin Gonzalez was a 15 year-old heading off to Massachusetts to complete his high school education. In the ensuing years, he has travelled to the other side of the world, built houses, but remained in close contact with his Mesa College professors and connections he made while on campus.
The San Diego Community College District has appointed four new student trustees for the upcoming academic year. Dalia Ramirez (San Diego City College), Zora Williams (San Diego Mesa College), Hailey Hua (San Diego Miramar College), and Haydee Zuniga (San Diego College of Continuing Education), will be sworn in during the June 20 SDCCD Board of Trustees meeting.
February 16, 2017
San Diego Mesa College’s Financial Literacy Taskforce is starting a new Financial Literacy Speaker Series for students on campus, starting with a lecture on $mart $pending by Rae Russell on Thursday, Feb. 21 at 11:30 a.m.
Students interested in learning about budgeting, income taxes, investments, credit scores, reading credit reports, responsibly obtaining credit and other financial topics are invited to attend any or all of the five sessions of the series being offered this semester.
“A lot of students come in and are not sure of how to handle their money, what to do and how to do it wisely,” said Howard Eskew, a business professor at Mesa College. “So we’re trying to help them to have a firm financial foundation of financially and make life a lot less stressful.”
The first lecture, $pend $mart, scheduled on Feb. 21 will be about budgeting, planning and goal setting in order to build wealth.
Navy veteran Russell is the founder and CEO of Financial Coach 4 U – a team of financial coaches who help to families to manage their finances “regardless of income levels,” according to their website. FC4U’s tactic is to focus on how much money people are able “keep” through monthly budgeting, as opposed to focusing on increasing their income.
As a way to help students prepare their tax returns, Certified Financial Planner Paul S. Lim will “take the mystery out of filing” during his Income Taxes Made Simple lecture on March 14. Lim works with The Wealth Consulting Group at LPL Financial and is a four-time recipient of the San Diego Magazine Five Star Wealth Manager Award.
During the Your Credit Score and You lecture on April 4, Chase Peckham will visit Mesa College to discuss credit scores and how they work. Peckham is the Director of Community Outreach for the San Diego Financial Literacy Center, overseeing educational content for the organization.
Lim will return to Mesa College for an Introduction to Investments lecture on April 25, where students will learn the basics of investing.
“We’re going to tell students how to wisely invest because a lot of students ask ‘what
stock do I buy?’ – and well, you don’t buy just a stock, you want to do smart, little
investments continuously over time so that you build your portfolio,” Eskew said.
Eskew said that the series will hopefully be expanded upon in the future, with additional educational programming added to help create a comprehensive education on finances.
The Financial Literacy Speaker Series program is made possible due to support from the California Coast Credit Union and the San Diego Financial Literacy Center. For more information about the Financial Literacy Series, contact Howard Eskew at heskew@sdccd.edu or (619) 388-5957.
Tags: Financial Literacy Taskforce, business
Jennifer Nichols Kearns
Director of Communications
jnkearns@sdccd.edu
(619) 388-2759
Howard Eskew
Professor - Business
heskew@sdccd.edu
(619) 388-5957
In the dynamic landscape of entrepreneurship, education is often the catalyst for turning ideas and visions into reality. Such was the case for business owner Kussy Mackenzie.
On Thursday, March 1, 2018 the first of the Spring 2018 Financial Literacy Speaker Series events – The Tax Man Cometh – took place from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in LRC 435. Guest speaker, Paul Lim, addressed nearly 50 students, staff and faculty on the basics of income tax, issues to consider, how to calculate deductions, and various strategies the common working person can use to avoid paying too much in taxes each year. Attendees were busy taking notes and filing out the provided tax forms as Lim guided them through the process of filling in the right numbers on these often confusing forms.
As a part of the Financial Literacy Series at San Diego Mesa College, Certified Financial Planner Paul S. Lim taught a class to give students tips on how to do their taxes during the Income Taxes Made Simple on March 14.
