APPLICANT #14: Curtis Brown

Curtis Brown is a 22-year-old student from Sherwood Park.

Here is Curtis' video application:

Here is Curtis' current situation:

I am currently working toward a degree in Communications in Professional Writing at Grant MacEwan University.  I’m in my fourth year of the program, and that’s practicum time at G Mac.

Right now I work in the Public Affairs department of Dow Chemical. It’s a great job, but they told me they could only hire me on for eight weeks, because that was all the budget they could whip up.  So unless I want to work for free, it’s time for a change… besides, writing about something apart from insulation materials and heat exchange fluids and process upsets will be a welcome change of pace.

Here is Curtis' blog post:

When I started at Grant MacEwan, I got a first-hand introduction to the wonderful world of higher education, the satisfying sense of accomplishment when you finally finish that last exam, and the excitement of not knowing if your going to have enough money left to eat next week.  They tell us that getting an education leads to a good career which leads to a bright future that doesn’t involve eating three meals a day out of tin cans.  But until that glorious day when your efforts finally get you a good paying job, we all feel the brutal pinch of enraged economics.  I was dumfounded to learn that a jug of milk and some bread costs 10 bucks, and almost had an aneurysm when I found out my bank wanted a quarter every time I swiped my debit card.  While most of the world is doing what it can to make you starve, Servus is giving you no-fees banking.  Students shouldn’t have to skip the present while they pursue the future, and keeping some extra money in your bank account lets you live your life while you learn.

And it’s not just students that need financial help.  There are thousands of young people in Alberta who need some financial guidance, and to learn the restraint that is necessary when you feel your very first credit card stirring in your wallet.  Young people love their toys.  Whether it’s the newest cell phone or a snowmobile or a quad or a video game or a super-cool computer that can do every function you could possibly imagine, we all have our weakness.  Money can fly out of your pocket without you even realizing how much you’ve spent because all you did was swipe a tiny plastic card and they gave you a bag of treats; there wasn’t any money involved.  Financial ignorance is a disease, and I will  be the cure.

Young people are at a very vulnerable stage in their financial lives.  We are entering a new world that we don’t have a lot of experience with, and there are predators out there, in the guise of commercials and salespeople and ATMs at bars that require three bucks just so you can have the privilege of spending your own money.  You wouldn’t let a toddler into a yard full of wasps, snakes, rabid wolves, or furious snapping turtles.  It doesn’t make sense to let wide-eyed financial infants out into a dangerous world.  A spokester will help turn the young people of Alberta into financially responsible adults, and give them the ability to successfully navigate the pitfalls that have swallowed so many first-time credit users.

Social networking is a great way to get youth interested in their financial futures.  We have ways of communicating today that couldn’t even be imagined 30 years ago.  Facebook and Twitter and You-tube and Flickr can rocket information around the world in seconds.  Since young people are so heavily involved with the social networking that has bombarded our generation, it only makes sense to use these modes of communication as a method of financial education.  The potential social networking has to educate is astounding.  People will listen to someone who can relate to them and their way of life, and I plan on being that someone.

Curtis