Nayancie Matthews, a freshman business administration major at Oswego State, spearheaded the introduction of the nonpartisan campaign and competition, Up to Us, to campus this year.

“Up to Us is a program that empowers students to educate peers on our long-term national debt, how it could affect their economic opportunities and what our generation can do to have a voice in raising awareness of our fiscal challenges,” according to its website.

The team at Oswego State consists of Matthews, Baldwin Lawson, Elizabeth Akeloko, Jalen Frierson and Shamone Williams. Since they are not an organization recognized by Student Association, they plan to collaborate with other organizations to table and organize events, such as Wildcard Day. This outdoor event will take place in March and will involve giant versions of board games and a dunk tank filled with cash.

“The Oswego team is helping to inspire collaborative dialogue and galvanize the campus around this issue by doing a combination of various events with other organizations here at Oswego,” Matthews said.

The Up to Us competition, located in California, gives participating college teams $1,000 to fund the groups to “run tailored campus campaigns to educate their peers and inspire collective action,” according to the campaign’s website. 

Each school is judged by media coverage, student involvement and number of pledges to be sent to students’ local legislator to let them know students are interested in changing fiscal policies. The winning team for the competition receives $10,000 and national recognition.

The pledge states: “As a young adult, I recognize that my generation has an essential role to play in helping to build a strong fiscal and economic future for our nation. Today, I am raising awareness of the country’s fiscal challenges as part of Up to Us, a nonpartisan campaign that empowers millennials across the nation to make their voices heard on the issue of our long-term national debt.”

Matthews’ campaign specifically focuses on financial literacy and educating both students and the surrounding Oswego community. In collaboration with their faculty advisor, Elizabeth Schmidt, a professor from the macroeconomics department, they plan to teach financial literacy and hold panels of economics and political science professors about the national debt, which exceeds $13 trillion, and discussions about the impact of it on education, healthcare and the average family income. 

“We want it to be very impactful to everyone in the Oswego community, not just the students at the school because many students are from the Oswego community, so we think it’s going to be really influential if other students and their parents can actually be part of this campaign and help us by recognizing the national debt,” Matthews said.

Matthews got involved with Up to Us as a result of her involvement in Seeds of Fortune, a program that helps minority girls obtain scholarships and various nationwide opportunities. She was encouraged to apply by the founder Seeds of Fortune when they attended an Up to Us panel discussion. 

“I’m looking at all of the financial sectors and wealth management and how it can impact my career, so I’m just looking to do different things in finance to understand how fiscal policy can affect different people from different communities,” Matthews said. “Specifically, I want to focus on immigrant communities.”

Matthews said she became interested in financial literacy because, when she came to the U.S. from Saint Christopher and Nevis, a nation in the Caribbean, she got involved in different programs that dealt with money.

“When I was younger and I first came to New York, I really didn’t understand the importance of financial literacy,” Matthews said. “I didn’t realize how complex money was and how it can impact different generations of people, so I think being an immigrant and growing up in an immigrant community made me realize the impact of financial literacy on immigrant communities.” 

  She said she plans to go to law school after graduating and hopes to open her own nonprofit immigration services center. 

Photo provided by Nayancie Matthews