WILLIAMSBURG — A student-run financial literacy program at William & Mary has earned national recognition after winning the grand prize in Zipcar’s “Students with Drive” competition, highlighting its efforts to expand financial education on campus and in the community.
The Braun Financial Literacy Program, a student-led team within the university’s Boehly Center, equips students with practical financial skills through workshops, events, and a structured curriculum.
“We’re a student-led team, and we have two advisors who are financial advisors, but the students are all students who are passionate about financial literacy,” Kendyl George, Advisor to the Financial Literacy Club, said. “We’re really just looking for ways to get that information out into the community.”
The program hosts monthly presentations on topics ranging from budgeting basics to more advanced financial decisions. Students involved say many of their peers face financial challenges for the first time when they arrive on campus.
“For a lot of students, especially when they move out from home and move to living on campus, it’s sort of the first time where they’re doing like any sort of budgeting or like personal spending tracking for themselves,” Ben O’Neill, Student Coordinator of BFLP, said.
The group recently gained national attention after winning the Zipcar competition, which included a video submission and a two-month public voting period. Students said they were surprised by the outcome.
“We were all very pleasantly surprised,” Kendyl said.
“We’ve been brainstorming ways to kind of ride this high and then also use the prize money to just further our mission,” she added.
The team said the competition came to their attention through a university email, prompting them to apply on a whim before advancing to the final stage.
“Ben and I were like, let’s just fill out an application on a whim,” Kendyl said. “And then we heard back about being one of the five finalists.”
Once selected, the group focused heavily on producing a strong video, recognizing it would account for a significant portion of the judging criteria.
“We knew that we would have to invest pretty heavily in terms of time and thought into the video,” Ben said. “We wanted to keep the viewer engaged and sort of following a storyline rather than just sort of spitting out info.”
The video emphasized the financial benefits of car sharing over car ownership, aligning with the program’s broader mission of encouraging smart financial decision-making.
“One of the big things that we’d like to focus on is the idea of making small, smart, financially literate decisions that can compound over time,” Ben said.
Following the win, program leaders say they are focused on expanding their reach and strengthening their curriculum, which guides students through financial education over four years.
“We definitely want to continue rolling out our four-year curriculum more,” Kendyl said. “Getting in front of more students so that they know that this is a resource that’s available to them.”
The program also aims to increase awareness and engagement across campus and beyond.
Kendyl said, “One of the major challenges of our program is just reaching as many people as possible.”
Students involved emphasized that financial literacy is a skill that can be developed at any time.
The Braun Financial Literature Program plans to continue hosting events this semester, including presentations on graduate school economics and taxes, while exploring additional partnerships to broaden its community impact.
