Financial Responsibility Pays Off

BCC Foundation Offers $5,000 in Scholarships for Best Public Service Announcements Demonstrating Financial Literacy

Are you a person who understands the importance of managing your money responsibly?

If you are, the Bergen Community College Foundation invites you to compete for a scholarship.

The Foundation, with a gift from NVE Bank, will offer $5,000 in up to five scholarships to students who produce the most original 30-to 45-second public service announcements demonstrating financial literacy.

What is Financial Literacy?
Personal financial literacy is demonstrated by a person’s ability to make informed, appropriate, and effective decisions concerning money management. Such decisions are focused on living within one’s means, while planning for his or her future financial needs. Understanding interest charges and associated costs of debt financing, repayment plans, borrower responsibilities, saving options, and credit reports are some of the important concepts that prepare a person to make quality financial decisions. Poor or uneducated choices can result in financial injury, increases in the costs of borrowing, overwhelming debt, loss of the ability to borrow, or bankruptcy.

What is a PSA?
A public service announcement (PSA) is similar to a commercial except that it does not sell a product or service for money. Often (but not always), a PSA is made on behalf of a non-profit organization or activity. It can be used to provide information, advance an idea or point of view, promote a policy, or encourage a call to action. Some examples of a non-profit organization seeking support for its activities include: the American Cancer Society’s antismoking campaign; citizen environmental groups’ antipollution efforts; annual Toys for Tots collections; information about AIDS prevention; and a bake sale benefiting a campus organization.

To achieve any of those purposes a number of strategies are helpful, including the presentation of facts, the use of humor, emotional appeals, and persuasive rhetoric. Remember that a given message can be conveyed in a number of ways depending on your imagination. Even though PSAs differ from commercials in their goals, they often use the same approaches and have similar time lengths, 30 and 60 seconds.

The Foundation is looking for messages aimed at college-age individuals that demonstrate originality and financial acumen in a message that is instructive in how to be financially responsible.

The Foundation will award scholarships to one person per winning video.
Students may use original music or non-copyrighted music available in the public domain, e.g. Garage Band.
Students must upload their videos to YouTube and provide the YouTube link to their video with their application on the PSA FINANCIAL LITERACY PAGE.
NVE Bank may broadcast the winning PSAs in its branch offices and other venues and the Foundation may air them on the College television station, Torch TV, at a later date.

Applicants must complete one entry form at the time they submit their PSA and return the completed application to Kathy Jennings, Scholarship Chairwoman, Pitkin Room A-129G by October 30, 2012.

For more information, please visit the PSA FINANCIAL LITERACY PAGE. The application and rules also are attached to this email.