Unlocking club doors: The Penny Jar Initiative educating students on financial literacy
By Reyam Jamaleddine, March 16 2025—
Being a university student means being an adult, managing new money as a student while being brand new to adulthood can be overwhelming. At the University of Calgary (U of C) the Penny Jar Initiative intends to equip students on campus with financial literacy through diverse resources, workshops and hands-on learning. Whether it is managing student loans, balancing budgets or planning for the future, this club aims to educate students on the basics and requirements of managing finances.
“Going through university, you don’t really get trained on managing your money. You would see students constantly working hard hours to study, and then they would be like, ‘I just don’t have the money to pay my tuition.’ Or, you know, student loans are piling up, and they were working hours for jobs which weren’t even related to them. That was our inspiration, we wanted to help students get some kind of literacy so that they could manage their money well,” said Sejal Chikhale, a fourth-year faculty of Science student and co-founder of the Penny Jar Initiative.
The Penny Jar offers events for not just students on campus but more broadly any student who is interested in gaining knowledge and skills on money management. In addition to hosting their own events, they also collaborate with other groups to create learning environments for students.
“We like holding on campus events which are just not open for University of Calgary students, but also for other students. We recently in November had one event with ATB Financial and we spoke about credit and debt management and credit scores, and that was a great event. And we’re planning in the future to do an intro of investing events. So we like to hold these in-person events so that students can get actual financial literacy from official national banks in Canada or any proper institutions because they have certifications,” explained Chikhale.
The earlier students tackle learning about their finances the more prepared they can be for their future. Chikhale explains how the core of the lessons they offer is to make sure students are prepared for the life that awaits them after post-secondary.
“When students graduate and find jobs, they don’t know how to manage their money, and we thought this would be a great topic, because the earlier you start the better right? Let’s say you graduate, and now you have $80,000. You don’t know what to do with that money, and then you start spending all of it and inflation is increasing, prices are increasing. So how can you manage it? I believe it starts early on so that you can care about your education and your future career goals as well,” said Chikhale.
As the club reiterates, you don’t have to wait for funds to be available to learn about how to manage finances. Not only can individuals take steps to learn, but friends and groups can lean on each other to gain valuable information.
“If you don’t have the money, you can always learn about it, so that the day you have the money you can apply the knowledge you’ve learned and be open about talking to people. Some people will appreciate you, and love to talk about it and share their plans … You need to find people who love talking about money and want you to grow and succeed in the future,” said Chikhale.
To learn more about the Penny Jar Initiative check out their LinkTree here.
This article is a part of our Voices section and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Gauntlet editorial board.