September 21, 2011 in Blog by Ryan
Find out more at our Fall 2011 general meeting
We are holding our Fall 2011 General Meeting on Wednesday, September 28, 2011 in two sessions, one at 5 p.m. at Waterloo and another at 7 p.m. at Laurier.
Students interested in getting involved in the project or finding out more about the initiative are welcome to attend either session. Food and drinks will be provided.
Please fill out this form if you plan to attend.
Waterloo session
5 p.m. – 6 p.m.
UW RCH 309
Laurier session
7 p.m. – 8 p.m.
WLU SBE1230
Remember to fill out the form if you plan to attend.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?hl=en_US&formkey=dFB2WFZfa3Y2YlFyaG5PVjhQcFNQb3c6MQ
September 21, 2011 in Blog by Ryan
Survey will help Waterloo Banking Project help students with their money
News Release
20 September 2011
Survey will help Waterloo Banking Project help students with their money
As the provincial election campaign turn to the issue of rising university tuition, a group of students in Waterloo is working to make it easier for students to manage the costs of higher education.
Waterloo Banking Project is running a survey to collect information from students at University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier University. The survey is online at survey.waterloobanking.com
The project is an initiative of Waterloo and Laurier students working to establish student-run financial services on their campuses. The vision is to help students graduate with more money, less debt, and better financial skills, by offering them accounts, loans, and financial planning services that are competitively priced and structured for students.
The organization would offer services in person at branches or kiosks, through ATMs, and online, in partnership with an established bank or credit union.
“Tuition is becoming a larger and larger factor for students pursuing a university education. Unfortunately, students have to worry about money when they should be focusing on their studies,” said Ryan Chen-Wing, founder and leader of the project, who studies economics and history at UW.
“We are working to make things a little easier for students,” he added.
In the past fifteen years tuition in Ontario has more than tripled, increasing 268%. This year university students in Waterloo are expected to pay $345 million to the two universities.
Student responses to the survey will help the group fine-tune their ideas for products and services to have the most impact on students. Registered UW and WLU students who complete the survey can enter a draw for $500.
“A key part of any business is the customer. We need to make sure that our services best meet the needs of our student customers,” said Helena Cao, senior director of the project and a math and business double degree student at UW and WLU.
The group is incorporated as a not-for-profit and has a board of advisors. They are also in discussions with potential partner financial institutions and with both universities. Launch is planned for 2013.
September 21, 2011 in Blog by Ryan
WLU and UW students can win $500 by filling out our survey
We are running a survey with a $500 draw prize.
The survey should take no longer than 15 minutes. Students may respond to the survey and opt not to be enter for the draw prize. Non-students, including alumni, faculty, and staff, may respond to the survey but will not be eligible for the $500.
To be eligible for the draw, you must be a current student at either University of Waterloo or Wilfrid Laurier University registered in Waterloo Region. To enter, you must enter your name and contact information at the end of the survey. Any personal information entered will be separated from the survey responses.
Find the survey at survey.waterloobanking.com
Please also pass on the link to your friends.
September 9, 2011 in Blog by Ryan
Review of Spring 2011 term
We made significant advances in our efforts to create student financial services on our campuses. Instead of having regular general staff meetings as we had over the previous year the core team of directors focused time and effort on direct development and implementation of our plan. While it is important for this student-community initiative to involve a broad range of students as a part of cultivating our future banking staff, we made advancement of our project goals a priority over the spring and summer.
Read more »
September 8, 2011 in Blog by Ryan
Awarding the prize for survey participation
We offered an iPad as a draw prize for our survey of student finance in April 2010.
From the names of eligible survey respondents, we randomly drew Dominik Aquilina, a Waterloo engineering student.
He was on work term when we procured the iPad 2 for him, so we had to mail it to him.
We are launching our next survey soon with a draw prize of $500. Currently registered Waterloo and Laurier students will be eligible to enter if they fill out the survey.
Update: Our survey is live at survey.waterlobanking.com