THE Cambridge Connection - Episode 21

You’ve been involved in doing some of the events with the Junior Achievements. We’ve kind of talked about that. Yes. Yes. It’s a very rewarding experience as well.

Discussing entrepreneurship and examples

Very rewarding. Well, this is a special show because, and I’m really excited, one of the students that has been a Junior Achievement member for quite a while, his name is Nathaniel Claudio, and he’s an entrepreneur, and he’s going to share with us what he’s working on with the support of Junior Achievement and Jennifer’s great help. Oh, wow. Looking forward to hearing this. Speaking of entrepreneurship, the definition of entrepreneur is a person who organizes or operates a business or businesses taking on greater than normal financial risks in order to do so.

Would you agree with that? Sure would. So based on that definition, Tina, what entrepreneur comes to mind for you? I would say Jeff Bezos. And why would Jeff Bezos come to mind?

Well, we all love Amazon, don’t we? I think so. That’s been a game changer in the shopping experience, right? You know, it’s ironic. The other day I was driving to Bradley Airport and I realized that there is an Amazon right on the way, a warehouse, and I thought to myself, wouldn’t it be interesting one day if we could just walk in the store and purchase, you know, what we find online?

Do you think that’ll ever happen? I think so. Let’s ask Jeff. Yeah, let’s ask Jeff. But he’s actually not on the line, but we’ll work on getting him on the show.

Okay. Okay. All right. So on the entrepreneurial spirit, that’s obviously one that’s come around and has been popular for what, you’d say the last 10 years? Yeah.

Yeah. How about Oprah Winfrey? Is she an entrepreneur? I would think so. Oprah Winfrey has changed the game of TV and changed the game of actually being someone that teaches people how to live in a great lifestyle, right?

She has a fabulous reputation. She’s inspirational to all. To all. Yes. That’s why I think this is a special show, because we’re going to see with Junior Achievement how they take our kids and inspire them to do things like this.

Credit for life fair story

So you’ve been a helper at the Credit for Life Fair, correct? Yes. Yes. Very rewarding experience. I got to sit with the kids, kind of a beginning to end type living situation.

Ironically enough, this is a funny story. So what we did is present the kids with a job and an income, a realistic job and income, and they were to figure out how they were going to obtain housing, food, transportation, everyday living expenses. And one bright individual came to me and I said to him, well, you don’t have a home. And he said, no, but I have a van. And I said, well, that’s wonderful.

Where are you going to take a shower? He said, I have a gym membership. Wow. So his goal was to sleep in the van and shower at the gym. I couldn’t fault him.

I gave him a little realistic advice, but it’s just, it was a funny story to me and I’ll always remember him. This is the great part about Junior Achievement. They work with kids from K through 12 and their thought process is going to change over time. And even in a situation like that, that’s why the programs are so important. They have community sponsors that help fund these types of activities.

And that’s why on the show today, I’m really excited to hear from Jennifer and Nathaniel, what they’re doing together, what his project is and hear about his entrepreneurial spirit. So that’s going to be fun. Nathaniel’s in high school. Yes, he is. So we’re going to get a little background on that today.

I’m really excited to hear about it. This is just another success story of seeing someone that’s gone through their program and getting to that point where they’re ready to go into young adult life as an entrepreneur. So it’s going to be fun. All right. Coming up, we have Jennifer Connelly and Nathaniel Claudio from Junior Achievement.

Show sponsor message

We’ll be right back. Hi, I’m Christopher Viale, president of Cambridge Credit Counseling. As 2022 begins, the Cambridge Connection is ready to continue to tackle the financial issues and challenges that matter most to you and your family. This month, they’re going to feature critical conversations around student loans, paying off holiday spending, budgeting for the new year and other financial wellness tips to help you meet any financial challenge. And as always, they’ll include experts in those fields and a few real life scenarios and success stories to show you how following reasonable steps can help you regain control of your family’s finances and get you back on track toward your goals.

m. m. Or find all the Cambridge Connection episodes anywhere you listen to your favorite podcast. And in the meantime, if you’d like to speak to one of the counselors at Cambridge Credit Counseling, there’s no obligation to call. 1-800-CAMBRIDGE.

Guests introduced on air

Welcome back, everyone. This is Gordon Oliver with the Cambridge Connection. And it’s my pleasure. I’m here with co-pilot Tina Marie. It is my pleasure to introduce you to today’s special guest.

We have Jennifer Connelly with Junior Achievement. She is the president of Junior Achievement and entrepreneur Nathaniel Claudio are joining us on the show today. Welcome, guys. Thank you. Hi, guys.

Nice to have you on. So, Jennifer. Thanks for having us. Oh, man. It’s our pleasure.

We’re really excited to hear about your story, for sure. So, Jennifer, for our listeners, just a quick overview about the amazing work that Junior Achievement does. We’ve been working with youth in the Western Mass region since 1919. And we have probably, since then, over half a million young people that have gone through the program and become our future leaders, our entrepreneurs. They’re your bankers.

They’re the people in business. So, we’ve been able to, through business volunteers, college volunteers, and our high school heroes, bring programs on financial literacy, entrepreneurship, and career exploration to students K-12. That’s awesome. And Nathaniel, obviously, again, amazing to have you on the show. We’re really looking forward to your story.

Nathaniel’s path into junior achievement

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got to where you are today with Junior Achievement? Yeah. So, originally, I’m a senior at Putnam, currently. In my freshman year, we were going through our rotations into the vocational school. And I always had an idea of wanting to go into business.

So I ended up, we ended up going through the rotations. I chose it and my shop teacher, Mrs. Nieves, one of the first things she told us during our one day rotations was, if you choose a shop and you’re a quiet kid, I promise I’m going to push you and get you to break out your shell and do things. And when it came socially, I was super out there, but when it came to work and activities, I was kind of really conservative and just by myself a lot, but so she definitely pushed me and she brought up junior achievement because she did a lot of work in the past with junior achievement and Mrs. Conley.

So freshman year, I just took as many opportunities as possible, whether it was internships, contests that were winning money, just an event to go to. Mrs. Nieves, my teacher, currently still my teacher, she really helped that push. After the first event, which I believe was the Shark Tank Challenge, the on-team preneurship challenge, since then I was kind of hooked on everything that Jen does. And anytime Mrs.

Nieves brought up an opportunity, I wanted to jump on it. So that first introduction is really all it really took for me to keep trying to stay involved. Yeah. And your message is so important for our youth, Nathaniel, because Junior Achievement’s a nation, it’s a national company and in all communities, it’s such an important program to help kids K through 12 to really start thinking about what they’re going to do as a career. Some will work for entrepreneurs, some will work for different corporations, different companies, depending on what path they take.

So to hear the inspiration that you got from Junior Achievement and from Jennifer and their organization is incredible. So Jennifer, talk to us about how the project we’re going to talk about came to light with Nathaniel. So Nathaniel is a wonderful role model and he was pre-COVID a high school hero. So he was a student from Putnam and Duggan Academy went to Sumner Avenue School and they volunteered just like an adult would to teach financial literacy. And so Nathaniel was volunteering in person in the schools and then COVID hits and we kind of had to pivot.

And so the idea came up during this past summer, what if we did podcasts, you know, that way our students, our leaders could talk about what they learned about financial literacy and bring it to other shops in the school that don’t have Junior Achievement, also bring it to younger students like the STEM middle school students by kind of asking them, what do you want to know about money? What’s your biggest concern? You know, what can we do to help? And sharing, you know, how they’ve learned to watch their personal finances and set up their lives. And Nathaniel has a great story for you.

Building the making cents podcast

And we’re excited for him to share, especially with the other co-op students, what he’s kind of taken in from all the JA programs and the financial literacy to help himself. I can’t wait. And if you’re just joining us, this is Gordon Oliver with The Cambridge Connection. We’re here with Jennifer Connelly, the president of Junior Achievement and entrepreneur Nathaniel Claudio. So Nathaniel, can you tell us a little bit about the project that you are working on?

Originally, honestly, before my teacher exposed me to it, I started a just a friendly, like just me and my friend podcast just to talk about random anything, honestly, just for fun. Ms. Neva has already had the idea. And she was like, Nathaniel, well, you already, you know, do this with your friends. So you have some practice.

And I often just go when I go to visit her during my academic week, she has me talk to the kids and things like that, like about finance, about just co-op, about how things are just because they’re they’re in younger grades. So to hear me say it, it’s kind of like that thing where, like when your mom tells you to do something and you don’t do it. And then when someone else tells you, it’s like, oh, you’re right, I should do this type of thing. That’s why she kind of hasn’t come in to talk. But so she brought it up and she was like, well, you know, we can have Jen come on and Jen can have some guests and we could talk about finance, financial literacy for the youth, the ways to set up for your future.

And then I was like, and years of me jumping on opportunities, I was like, Mrs. Neva, you already know I’m willing to do this. So you just let me know where to start, what times, things like that. So honestly, it was just on my end, it was her tying in things that have already been done and just connecting them to to start to start this happening. Well, shout out to Mrs.

Nevis. She sounds like a very influential teacher. She must take her role. Yeah, she takes her role very seriously. And let’s recognize her right now.

Indeed, indeed. And I’m curious, when you did the Junior Achievement Shark Tank show, did that was that the start of where you started to feel that there was an entrepreneurial direction for you? I would say I would say it was a big push. I feel like I’ve always had a slight business mind and entrepreneurship like attitude. But I think that that group environment of like of us sitting down, doing research, weeks of planning, things like that, and then doing the entire event, I think that was probably the biggest push.

And especially like doing it in person and not just watching like videos or reading stuff, like actually doing it. The actual experience. It was the biggest jump for me. Yeah. Nathaniel, that was in freshman year, correct?

Yes, that was my freshman year. So, Jennifer, you’ve kind of been watching Nathaniel now where we’ve gotten from there to today to create the podcast. So can you give a little bit of as the president of Junior Achievement, can you just give us what you’ve been watching unfold as far as how he got from there to here? It’s been a wonderful journey. I mean, young people like Nathaniel that I have the pleasure of working with are why I get up and keep doing this every day.

He did the High School Heroes. He had one company that they did for his first Shark Tank. And then he became part of another company called Posey Pens. And I think Tina Marie might actually have a Posey Pen because Cambridge bought some. They’re pencil pens that they’ve attached flowers to and they look like a bouquet.

And it’s like on your desk so that nobody, when somebody says, I need a pen, they take it. But they’re not going to walk off with a flower. Absolutely. I know exactly what you’re talking about. You do.

And so they did so well with their Posey Pens that Nathaniel and the other parts of his team, they invested their own money. In getting more supplies and expanding the product line. And just before COVID hit, we were getting ready for the next round of on team challenge and things. So in talking with Nathaniel, he’s actually his sister is a, is she a freshman, Nathaniel? His sister is in the business program with at Putnam as well.

And so he’s going to turn the reins over and start another Posey Pen program before he graduates. So, um, you know, to see him pass it on to other students. Wow. That’s quite a resume, Nathaniel, before graduating high school, huh? What you should ask him, because one of the things he’s going to talk with the other students about is he started a Roth IRA in co-op.

Awesome. Very impressive. Very impressive. So we’re going to take a quick break. Are you guys able to stay with us?

Because I’d really like to get into the project and the podcast and understand what it’s all about. So our listeners can understand what you’re building. Awesome. This is Gordon Oliver with The Cambridge Connection. We’ll be right back.

Setting up the podcast studio

Hi, I’m Jennifer Conley, president of Junior Achievement of Western Massachusetts, a local nonprofit that works with students in grades K through 12. Junior Achievement gives young people the skills they need to own their economic success, to plan their future and to make smart academic choices. In today’s ever changing world, JA empowers students. Welcome back, everyone. This is Gordon Oliver with The Cambridge Connection, here with special guest Jennifer Connolly from Junior Achievement and entrepreneur Nathaniel Claudio.

This has been amazing hearing your story, Nathaniel, and I’m really excited to hear about the podcast and what it’s about. So can you tell us what is the podcast, what is the intention of it, and how are you going to be working to pull it off? Yeah. So the intention right now is to combine some adults and some of the youth, either my age, a little bit younger, so maybe like freshmen and freshmen, sophomores, just to come talk about finance, financial literacy, understanding finance, so another word to say financial literacy, but ways to set up for your future, and I guess that’s where, not I guess, but that’s where the adults or members of Junior Achievement would come in to say their experience and their ways, things that work for them, just to have conversations about, honestly, just like the business world, real world, things along those lines. So let me ask you, I would be remiss if I did not mention that without my co-pilot, Tina Marie, and our producers, this show wouldn’t exist.

So who is your team? Is it just you, or are you starting to build a team of people that are going to help you with the show? Honestly, my teacher, again, Mrs. Nieves, she’s the one that invited me. To my understanding, it would be her, Jen Conley.

I would try to make as many appearances as possible, and she didn’t mention specifics, but she said she wanted some members of her board meetings, her board members that appear in her meetings to join, because a lot of her board members run businesses, and I think one of them is a financial advisor for the youth, so he can have his intake on the podcast. Some students, she said students from shops, students from other shops that get approved that would like to listen and have their input, and same thing, she did suggest that to reach out to other members of JA, so outside of just Jen, she can hear more input from what else is going on in the organization, how they help, things like that. So yeah, that’s my understanding of the team. It’s honestly just whoever we reach out to, and who’s willing to converse with us. That’s interesting, Nathaniel.

In the past, Gordon and I have spoke a lot about financial literacy taught in high school, and it’s just never been a subject, and as a counselor nowadays, I hear it a lot when I’m speaking with somebody that might have an abundance of debt, or just don’t know where to go. They were never taught. So I think this is an amazing opportunity to get the word out there, and to show students everyday life that just wasn’t a subject prior to the millennials, I would even say. Right, right. This is great.

We have so many years of helping people that have had some financial difficulties on the financial literacy spectrum. So just because we know that junior achievement revolves around volunteers, I would love to volunteer my time to help you with the podcast, and I’m sure my co-pilot would love to do the same. Sign us up. So on the financial literacy side, we’d love to help you. Yeah, we’d love to help you on just even, this is the 21st show, and we’re learning every single time, every single week about things, and we’d love to share that with you too, just for perspective purposes.

That sounds amazing. I’d love to keep in contact so we can figure that out. Absolutely. And Jennifer, again, you know how we feel about you and junior achievement. You’re just so helpful, so amazing.

Your heart is in everyone else being successful, and I know that you were a part of getting this podcast studio together. So can you tell us a little bit about that process? Certainly. It came as an idea between Ms. Villalva and me talking about how could we take the virtual world and have virtual volunteers, and so it came about that we could do the podcast.

They’re going to call it Making Sense, C-E-N-T-S. And so we had, she had some help from her son-in-law who does podcasting, and they came up with all the equipment needs. We got a grant to fund working with students, and then we got an anonymous grant that we used to purchase the materials. So they have their whole, they turned a conference room into a podcast room. And they have four places for people to talk and things like that.

They can do some videos. And then we, you graciously invited me to your show, and I met Lisa Riley, and she knows all about podcasts. So she joined the advisory team for the BIM, Business and Technology program. And we’re setting up a time to meet so she can see what we have and help us to get the show off the ground. So without all of our contacts, without the people that can talk, like Cambridge Credit coming in and financial advisors coming in and talking with the students, and without Lisa giving us that guidance of what is a podcast.

I’m lucky I know what this is, so, you know, I appreciate it. And without a community, we’re not going to get there. And not only are you sharing financial literacy with the students, but you’re also showing them that there’s a future in this. This could be a career. I must say, Lisa is very good at what she does, obviously.

She’s helped Gordon and I since day one. So you’ve got a really good member on your team. We’re very lucky. Thank you. And I’m looking forward to it.

So my guess is in March, we’ll be off the ground after February vacation. So watch out for us. We’ll be inviting you. And Nathaniel will again shine his light and be able to help other young people navigate, you know, growing up and starting to work and savings and investing for your future. You brought up a very important point.

The pandemic caused a lot of heartache for a lot of people in many ways. But to see something that through the pandemic is now becoming real, helping again, a student at Putnam Vocational with the idea to move this forward. You said again about community. This is all about bringing people together and working together with a common goal. And it really is so energizing to hear a story like this and to be able to share it with our listeners.

Inspirations and podcast launch details

It really. Very refreshing. These are amazing educators and young people that we work with. We don’t have too much time left as we talk about the 28 minutes that fly by, right, Tina? Fly, fly, fly.

So, Nathaniel, before we wrap this up, do you have anyone, you know, either local or just in general that inspires you? Other than the obvious, Miss Nevis, I would also add Jen, because without her running the programs and events that she does, I wouldn’t have probably attended them and gone through. Let’s see. I could tell we had a lot in common. I have a couple.

Yeah. Definitely my mother. Can’t do without mom, huh? Yeah. Shout out mom.

Always. Shout out mom. Always got to shout out mom. I would say my sister, too. Well, listen, that’s awesome.

And whenever you need any help from us, again, offline, we’ll talk to Jennifer, and through her we’ll work with you. As you’re getting close to March and leeching the show, any help that we can provide, we’d be more than happy to spend some time helping you in any way that we can. Because again, without community and without everybody helping each other, you’re typically nowhere. Right. Hang on one second.

Thank you. I appreciate that. Yep. All right. Before we let you guys go, Jennifer.

So the name of the podcast is Making C-E-N-T-S, is that correct? Yes, it is. Okay, and obviously the podcast has not been launched yet, but where can people follow to find out when it will be launched so they can listen and tune in? org, and we’ll keep updates on there. All right, one more opportunity for you.

Junior achievement fundraising events

I know you have some fundraising events coming up for Junior Achievement, can you share them with us? Yes, I will. We have a great bowling event that’s a lot of fun, that’s going to be on April Fool’s Day. We have a golf tournament in June, and we have our On Team Panora Challenge, which is one of Nathaniel’s favorites, that’s April 28th. So on our website you can find links to all the events.

And obviously to our listeners, you can’t do any better than help and support Junior Achievement. You hear the great work that they’re doing, and we’re happy to support you guys along the way, and we really, really are thankful that you joined us today, and thank you so much. Great story. Wasn’t that just incredibly inspiring? So inspiring.

Counselor success story and closing

You know what, Gordon? Speaking of inspiring, if I have a few moments, I just want to share a success story as a counselor at Cambridge Credit Counseling. I cannot get enough success in the show. I know. I love it.

I love it. Okay, good news. So recently I spoke with Shalita from North Carolina. She did have unexpected out-of-pocket medical expenses and started to fall behind on her credit card debt. She had contacted her creditors to see if they’d work something out with her directly.

One of the credit card companies referred her, actually, to our organization, so respecting and understanding the services we provided. She called us. We went through a complete financial evaluation, turned out $7,000 in credit card debt. On her own, she was paying $363 a month. After conducting the evaluation, I was able to get her payments down to $196 a month, paying off $7,000 in 52 months.

It was about a four-year, three-month repayment plan. All of the future late fees were eliminated. All of her accounts re-aged, meaning they were brought current after one to three on-time consecutive payments. Interest rates as low as 4% on her way to financial freedom. And she was so relieved.

After the conversation, I actually followed up with her recently. She’s on the right path. She sees light at the end of the tunnel and can breathe much easier. And it’s just so rewarding to be able to help people. Isn’t that the greatest part about the show?

It’s about inspiration. It’s about success. It’s about there is always an answer. It’s about being uplifted. It’s about community, right?

This is all amazing information and just hearing stories like Nathania’s, like Shalita’s. That’s what this is all about. It’s so rewarding. It’s so rewarding, especially in times like now. So 28 Minutes has come and gone, and of course, before we close out the show, I have to give a huge thank you to Leah and Lisa, our producers.

As always, we have great experts on the horizon. m. com or find our podcast where you listen to your favorite shows. Once again, we want you to be part of the conversation. And before I close the show, I want to leave you with a quote, if you want to walk fast, walk alone.

But if you want to walk far, walk together. Ratan Tata. org or feel free to call 1-800-CAMBRIDGE. Hey all, it’s Tina Marie and you might know me as Gordon Oliver’s co-pilot for The Cambridge Connection every Saturday morning. What you might not know is that I’ve known Gordie for a really long time and as a certified credit counselor at Cambridge Credit Counseling for over 20 years.

I am thrilled to join Gordie every week to share and chat about real people with real financial problems, along with many success stories, both myself and all of the counselors at Cambridge Credit have been a part of. We know it takes a village of support and inspiration if someone is struggling financially. So it’s nice to know if that person is you, that you’re not alone out there. m. right here on WHMP for The Cambridge Connection because Gordie and I, we are here to help you have a better relationship with your money and hopefully make you smile.

Couldn’t have said it better myself, Tina Marie.