PBN BUSINESS WOMEN AWARDS 2020 ACHIEVEMENT HONOREE: Marcy Reyes | The Financial Literacy Youth Initiative
MARCY REYES ALWAYS HAD an innate sense of being a change-maker.
Successful corporate roles, including serving as assistant vice president of consumer credit for Santander Bank N.A., and initiatives were satisfying, but she still wanted to give back more. For Reyes, it wasn’t a question of what she’d do to make a mark on her community; it was more a sense of when.
“I was talking about a financial literacy program for years and years … it never really went away,” she said. Nor did the need for helping underrepresented students living within environments of generational poverty.
It’s why she founded The Financial Literacy Youth Initiative in Cranston in 2017.
Creating a nonprofit that helps young people in the community develop financial literacy skills capable of opening up new opportunities is just part of the picture for Reyes.
She is the manager of Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island’s small-group rating and operations and an adjunct finance teacher at Rhode Island College. For volunteerism, Reyes is on Blue Cross’ Diversity and Inclusion Council board, as well as the board of the Rhode Island College Alumni Association. She also makes time to chair Blue Cross’ Latin@Link employee resource group and mentors students pursuing master’s degrees in finance at Northeastern University in Boston, a path she, herself, completed.
Empowerment through personal and corporate finance is her passion. Giving back by spreading her wisdom through the FLY Initiative and other means is a perfect mix of getting behind a cause near and dear to her heart while sharing the wealth.
Learning how to manage money is a secret weapon more young people need, she said, to empower them to make the right choices. Just knowing what questions to ask and where to go for resources goes a long way in spurring opportunity. It’s a knowledge and power her teenage daughter Katia has, Reyes said.
“We’ve been talking about money management for a really, really long time – a savings plan, including the time value of money; opportunities to invest; and how interest is compounded over time,” Reyes said.
Concepts such as setting savings goals and comparing investment options may seem like baseline considerations to some. But Reyes sees “taking the mystery out of it” in terms of finances and money management as integral to making young people self-sufficient.
