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Financial Education at BCC Kickoff Huge Success!!!

Left - Business Leadership Club President, Bryan Imanishi with Don Blandin, President and CEO of Investor Protection Trust, Right - Don Blandin, Carmen Aguiar, Bryan Imanishi and Ronnie Fontenot form panel on savings and investing survival skills for Financial Education Kickoff.

On January 19, 2007, about 500 students, BCC employees and people from the community attended the events around the kickoff of the Financial Education at BCC including over 100 students who packed a panel discussion with Don Blandin (see bio below) and Carmen Aguiar (prominent CPA and financial planner plus advisor to the program) moderated by student leaders, Bryan Imanishi and Ronnie Fontenot. The Washington State of Financial Institutions and the Investor Protection Trust sponsored the festivities. In the packed forum on savings and investing survival skills, Don Blandin and Carmen Aguiar shared how they started  from modest backgrounds and in families who were not knowledgeable about investing. They gave extremely helpful hints on how to establish good financial behaviors from the start. Immediately following this, BECU gave a presentation on how to manage credit. Throughout the two-and-a-half hour event, students streamed to the booths provided by Bank of America, Wells Fargo, BECU, Washington GEAR UP, Puget Sound Better Investing, the Attorney General's office, the Department of Financial Institutions, the Seattle Medium, Financial Education consultant Alicia Haus, and the Washington Society of CPAs where they were able to gather financial educational material. Thanks to the Washington Department of Financial Institutions and the incredible Scott Kinney whose passion and formidable project management skills made this phenomenal event possible. DFI designed and provided the great t-shirts, the eye-catching print ads/posters (see below), the radio ads, coordinated the booths, and provided a comprehensive media kit. They brought us to another level with their professionalism. Thanks to Don Blandin for his big hairy audacious goals and to the IPT for the 400 cookies enjoyed by participants. Thanks to Carmen Aguiar for her generosity with her time and her incredible heart. This event would not have been the success that it was without the great student leaders of the Business Leadership Club who ushered people, encouraged students to go to booths, and gave out t-shirts. Thanks to Ronnie Fontenot, Efrain Morenco-Salamanca and Bryan Imanishi who provided their investing bios for the media kit and committed to blogging about their investing life. Thanks to Martinque Combs for managing the logistics. And last but never least, thanks to Nora Lance who just takes care of everything. With such an auspicious start, Financial Education at BCC can only go on to bigger and better things.

A packed audience listened to Don Blandin and Carmen Aguiar talk about saving and investing survival skills.

Left - An attentive audience listened to the talk by Don Blandin and Carmen Aguiar, Right - Tina Archuletta from the Washington Society of CPAs.

Left - Bank of America gives information to students, Right - Carmen Aguiar gives engaging examples of how to achieve good financial behaviors.

Left - Wells Fargo gives information to members of the community who came in for the event, Right - the Washington Department of Financial Institution's booth is a hit with students.

Left - Judith Paquette with Alice Jenkins and Molly Blume, who are part of the team of Financial Education at BCC. Right - Kevin Hsu, Bryan Imanishi and Amir Turuljia help Don Blandin select a t-shirt.

Left - the awesome team of Business Leadership Club members made this event such a success (Huiqiang Zhao, Bryan Imanishi, Ronnie Fontenot, Amir Turulja, Leslie Lum (advisor), Kia Aghabeigi, and Jesse Leonardi) with the incredible Nora Lance. Right - Efrain Morenco-Salamanca, Jesse Leonardi, with Carmen Aguiar and Don Blandin.

Don Blandin, President and CEO of Investor Protection Trust and national expert on financial literacy.

As an association executive with over 30 years of experience in a wide variety of non-profit and government sectors, Blandin brings significant involvement and knowledge in critical national and international issues including financial literacy and investor education.  Don was president of the American Savings Education Council (ASEC), Director of the Business-Higher Education Forum, a group of corporate CEOs and university presidents, served as Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of Administration, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Executive Director of the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration, Executive Staff Assistant in the Office of the Governor, California Council on Intergovernmental Relations, and Executive Vice President of the Council for Excellence in Government.

Don has served on several boards including the Certified Financial Planner™ Board of Standards as a member of the CFP® Board of Governors and chairman of its national Consumer Advisory Council.  Don currently serves on the Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy Board of Directors as Vice President and was an appointed delegate to both the 1998 and 2002 White House/Congressional National Summits on Retirement Savings, hosted by the President and Congressional leaders.  Named by the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, he has served as Chair of Education Councils for the United States Savings Bonds program.  Don is a founding member and the first national director of Pi Alpha Alpha, the national honorary society for public administration.

As an expert in the areas of financial education and on private- and public-sector coalition building, Don is frequently asked to speak at conferences, seminars, and other events.  He has also been featured in numerous radio and television broadcast segments and publications such as NBC’s Today Show, CNN, Bloomberg Radio, National Public Radio, ABC News, FOX News, USA TODAY, Reader’s Digest, New York Times, Money, Time, Business Week, Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, Fortune, Black Enterprise, The Washington Post, Parenting, Associated Press, and CBS MarketWatch.  In addition, Don has testified before Congress for both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives on issues related to financial literacy and education. 

Don holds a Bachelor of Arts in political science from California State University, Hayward, and a Master of Public Administration degree from The American University in Washington, DC. 

This website is maintained by Leslie Lum and does not reflect the opinions or position of Bellevue Community College.  Contact llum@bcc.ctc.edu if you have any questions.

Last updated: 1/12/07