Two Queen’s psychology students were awarded the Top Undergraduate Paper by the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada’s (FCAC) Building a Better Future Challenge for their efforts to help postsecondary students improve financial literacy when applying for scholarships.
Hannah Burrows, MSc ’25, and Flo Nusselder, ArtSci ’24, were honoured for their paper titled: “Pedagogical Solution to Financial Illiteracy in Canada: Increasing the Accessibility of Higher Education.”
The paper was born from a project that started in a 400-level psychology class in January, which included contributions from Adrianna Armstrong, ArtSci ’23 and BEd ’24, and Alyssa Giovannangeli, ArtSci ’23, a current MSc student at McMaster University.
Armstrong explained the group’s class asked them to pursue a topic in education they’re passionate about. After being partnered together, Burrows, Giovannangeli, and Nusselder developed a project featuring six modules tackling topics which include financial literacy, navigating scholarship web pages, building resumes, and asking for a letter of recommendation.
Their pedagogical approach targets grade 11 and 12 students looking to enter higher education in Canada.
The group noticed that hundreds of millions of dollars of available scholarship money go unclaimed in Canada each year. Armstrong said they hope to provide students with the skills to access these scholarships, whether they be entering postsecondary education for the first time, are looking for funds to continue their education, or are looking to return to school later.
“We want to give them all the tools and information and build their confidence, so that they feel like they can take this on, and to help connect them with that money,” Armstrong said.
Both Armstrong and Giovannangeli are looking ahead to upcoming pilot programs out of their old high schools to test run modules and see what kinds of gaps there are in the program. Armstrong said that while guidance counsellors in high schools do their best to equip students with the resources they need, there’s still a gap in school curricula.
According to Armstrong, the QYourVenture group was developed with the support of the Dunin-Deshpande Queen’s Innovation Centre (DDQIC). The Centre provided business and entrepreneurial training that psychology students wouldn’t otherwise have access to. The DDQIC has allowed the group to make connections to acquire seed funding from local investors and has also allowed them to advance their venture into a viable product.
Armstrong, Burrows, Giovannangeli, and Nusselder are currently working on transferring their publication to pressbooks, which is the same platform the PSYC 100 textbook is built on.
With November designated financial literacy month, Burrows and Nusselder will be announced at an event held by the FCAC. Alongside this, the group filmed a video which will be presented at an internal conference held on Nov. 29.
“They’re showcasing students who have won this challenge, but additionally they roll this publication out. It will be able to be found on Canada.ca, which is exciting,” Burrows said.
Competitions like the FCAC’s Building a Better Future Challenge are important as they provide networking opportunities while showing the inherent value in the student perspective. Nusselder believes competitions are an avenue for psychology students to show the flexibility and range in how their skills can be applied.
“[It’s] a wonderful way for us to highlight the benefits of a degree that isn’t usually considered in economic spaces,” Nusselder said.
—with files from Violetta Zeitlinger Fontana
Tags
DDQIC, FCAC, financial literacy, Psychology
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Natasha Robb
Congratulations on a great accomplishment and an important project. Well done!