Dear supporters,
My name is Julissa Quevedo Aguila. I was born and raised in Milwaukee as part of a family that immigrated from Mexico. While my parents taught me the value of hard work, they didn’t have the tools to teach me about managing money. It’s not their fault, financial literacy is something many families like mine lack access to. I knew that to break the cycle, I needed to find another way to learn.
When I joined Money Coach at Carmen South High School, I saw an opportunity to change my life and the lives of those I love. I didn’t want to just get by. I wanted to thrive and learn how to build a stable future for myself and my family.
The program made me realize that by gaining financial knowledge, I could be the hero in my life, transforming the financial barriers that have held back so many families like mine.
My parents weren’t able to accomplish their dreams, but I can help get them out of that system with the skills and tools the Money Coach program taught me.
I just finished my internship at Baird, which I was able to get as a direct result of attending a Money Coach alumni event. In addition to Money Coach giving me a financial education, it also gave me connections and opened the door to opportunities I wouldn’t have had otherwise. I am a sophomore at Alverno College majoring in business to become a financial analyst. What I learned from the Money Coach program about retirement accounts, taxes, mortgage loans, and credit helped me a great deal in my personal finance classes as a freshman. I came in with that knowledge, while many of my peers did not. Because I had that understanding, I was able to share it with my friends.
This isn’t just about breaking a cycle of financial insecurity in my life – it’s about breaking that cycle for my entire family and helping others in my community do the same. Because when one person learns, it doesn’t stop there. It moves through families, neighborhoods, and entire communities. And that’s how we start to build a better future for everyone.
Thank you for being part of my journey. None of this would be possible without your support. But there are so many more young people who need this knowledge – who, like me, come from families that haven’t had the chance to learn these critical skills. Your generosity helps to spread the power of financial education, creating lasting change and opportunity.
With gratitude,
Julissa Quevedo Aguila
