“The spirit of Hawai’i Island is the spirit of possibility,” says CU Hawaiʻi’s website. And they aren’t just saying that – they go into communities across the island to nurture a spirit of possibility. We’ve been fortunate to work with CU Hawai‘i in the past year to support their revamped emphasis on youth and community financial literacy.

For this article, we interviewed CU Hawai‘i’s Youth Program Coordinator Chasity Cadaoas, an East Hawaii native with a lifelong passion for youth. Chasity has been involved with Hōkūpa’a‘s youth opportunities hui since she started her position one year ago. As a part of the Community Development Department, she helps to build financial knowledge and capacity for all. We’ve been glad to know Chasity and receive opportunities to help out with projects like: developing a successful youth credit education pilot program, scoring scholarship essays, and putting on their first Reality Fair since 2020!

What is a Reality Fair?

In a Reality Fair, volunteers and participants interact in a fun (and slightly stressful) simulation of real-world budgeting. After selecting a career they might have in several years, each participant receives a budgeting worksheet sheet that includes a reasonable income based on their choice. To make things a little more interesting, they may also randomly get a spouse with their own vocation and income, and perhaps some children, too.

The journey begins with a career-based budgeting sheet

Participants are then free to visit booths covering different spending categories, such as housing, transportation, and health. As they visit booths, most volunteers try to “sell” the most expensive options, which participants record in their budget sheets. Other booths offer loans or additional jobs to help participants cover their growing budgets. As they go along, they get to spin wheels and draw for random surprises, such as changes to credit scores, unexpected bonus income, and, most expensive of all: more babies.

Participants visiting various booths in the gym to fill out their budget sheets

The most recent event on April 5th, 2024, was held for about 100 juniors and seniors at Kea‘au High, and collected a lot of feedback to use for planning future events. While students were surprised by how easily a budget could be busted, they were particularly shocked by childcare costs. This was no surprise to our Hōkūpa‘a representative, who was stationed at the “Ohana Life” table to help students budget for childcare and baby supplies right after encouraging them to take on luxurious grocery budgets. After writing childcare costs into their budget sheets, almost all of the students refused to have pets or make charitable donations.

Although the vast majority of students went over their budgets by the time they had visited all the stations, student survey responses indicated that they learned the importance of having a budget, and how to assess wants versus needs. Will reflecting on this experience keep the juniors and seniors of Kea‘au High from making the same financial mistakes in the real world? Chasity thinks so, as did many of the adult volunteers who wished this kind of event was available for their teenage selves.

Participants react to the ups and downs of budgeting

To help the lessons really sink in, CU Hawai‘i returned a week later to do some budgeting presentations, a free service they provide upon request. While hosting a Reality Fair takes a lot of logistics and volunteers (there were almost 40 at the last event), these kinds of presentations are relatively easy to arrange – see their contact info at the end of this article.

Financial literacy education

Financial literacy is important, but can be daunting. Fortunately, there are plenty of resources. CU Hawai‘i does in-person and virtual financial literacy presentations for groups of all ages, and also pops up at events like community fairs, career fairs, and school family nights. They also offer members free access to Zogo, a gamified app that lets users earn gift cards by completing short learning modules. If you are a member at another credit union, the people there most likely want to help you learn about finances, too. Ask what resources are available!

Do you prefer to learn on your own? There are many resources around online and in print, and we suggest you learn from more than one source. Compare what different sources say, and think carefully about what pieces of advice are the most consistent and relevant to your situation. You can get started by checking out some of the information and tools we’ve collected to help students explore career, education, training, and finances after high school.

Talking about finances with ‘ohana

Chasity encourages talking more openly about finances with young people. Often, finances are an unspoken source of stress within the family. Even when adults do not talk about money directly, young people still pick up on their mindsets. If you have young people in your life, you don’t need to show them all of your financial details. It is helpful just to let them know that it is okay to talk about money and what it means in a real way. Let them know that they are welcome to ask questions about it.

You can also help young people learn and practice financial skills. Starting a savings account, creating a budget, creating a savings plan, balancing a checkbook, and even just writing a check are all easy ways to start. You can go a bit further by playing with some calculators on the CU Hawai‘i website to test out how leases, loans, and savings affect finances over time.

Student career pathways with CU Hawai‘i

What if a young person is interested in finance-related careers? CU Hawai‘i hires student tellers at their on-campus credit unions at public high schools, which serve only the staff and students at their host school. Their newest location opened at Kea‘au High just last month, and they also have a branch at Waiakea High. Students can be hired without experience, and training covers the whole job application process to help prepare new hires for their future endeavors.

KITV4 features the Kea‘au student credit union branch

Student employees gain experience working as tellers on-campus, and also get afterschool opportunities to visit the main credit union branches. There, they practice working as tellers with the general public, or work on special projects like creating marketing materials. They might help with community outreach events on other days. Student tellers can transition into full-time employment after graduating.

Get involved

We’ve covered quite a bit of community outreach in this article, and we hope you’re feeling inspired. For the Reality Fair, CU Hawai‘i took care of the logistical heavy-lifting with the school administration, and also made sure to provide prizes, swag, and free lunches for us volunteers. Overall, it was a great volunteer experience. Maybe you would enjoy helping with a future Reality Fair, too?

CU Hawai‘i is open to collaborate and help at school and community events, or do educational presentations for groups. CU Hawai‘i staff also enjoy community service projects outside of financial literacy.

E-mail community@cuhawaii.com to request services or volunteer your own!

Mahalos

We mahalo Chasity and her team at CU Hawai‘i for all they do for the people of Hawai‘i Island, particularly the youth. Thank you for inviting us to help!

Chasity thanks everybody that helped (and will help!) to support events, including all the Reality Fair helpers: Rebecca Choi and the entire CU Hawaiʻi staff, school personnel, and volunteers from various organizations. She is also grateful to all the people she collaborates with in schools and other community-serving organizations in her efforts to serve the community.